Mumbai: The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) on Monday transferred Sameer Wankhede, the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer who wrongly arrested actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan in a drug case last year, to Chennai.
The development comes just days after the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) gave a clean chit to Aryan, following which the ministry of home affairs (MHA) recommended action against Wankhede for a “shoddy probe” in a drug bust on Cordelia, a cruise ship, on October 2, 2021.
A team led by Wankhede had arrested 20 persons in the bust, including those like Aryan who did not have any drugs on them. The NCB, which filed a chargesheet at the special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court on May 27, dropped charges in six of the accused.
The centre has asked the Finance Ministry to act against Wankhede for his “shoddy probe” in the drugs case when he was in the NCB.
He has faced action for allegedly submitting a fake caste certificate for a government job, sources had said last week.
Sources have explained five irregularities in the investigation conducted by Wankhede after the drugs raid. No videography was done during the search operation and there were lapses in analysing the contents of Aryan Khan’s phone, since the chats do not link him with the case, the sources said.
No medical test was done to prove consumption of drugs and one witness even turned hostile, telling the special investigation team that he was made to sign on blank papers, the sources said, adding two more witnesses told the investigation team that they weren’t at the location at the time of the NCB raid.
Another serious lapse was the clubbing of all the accused and invoking the same charges against everyone, even when Aryan Khan was found without drugs, the sources said.
