Mumbai, May 19: The Bombay High Court has stayed the arrest of former Regional Director of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Sameer Wankhede till May 22. Along with this, the court has also ordered Wankhede to cooperate with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation.
Sameer Wankhede has expressed his gratitude to the Court, the State Government and the Central Government and said that he will be present in the office on Saturday for the CBI investigation.
Sameer Wankhede’s lawyer Rizwan Merchant said that the FIR registered by the CBI is completely illegal. When Sameer Wankhede arrested Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan.
Within four months of that, the CBI should have registered a case under Prevention of Corruption. He told this to the court. After this, the court has ordered both CBI and NCB to file a reply.
Rizwan Merchant said that he feared that the CBI might arrest Sameer Wankhede during the investigation. Then there was a demand for an order not to arrest Sameer Wankhede, which was accepted by the court.
Merchant said that the CBI will have to increase the scope of its investigation in this case. The reason for this was that Sameer Wankhede was reporting every action to his superiors.
According to the information, the CBI has registered a case against four people including Sameer Wankhede under the Prevention of Corruption and raided 29 places in the country including Mumbai.
After this, the CBI had called Sameer Wankhede on Thursday for investigation. But Sameer Wankhede first filed a petition against the CBI investigation in the Delhi Court and then in the Bombay High Court on Friday. In this petition, Sameer Wankhede had sought an order to quash the FIR lodged by the CBI.
It is noteworthy that Sameer Wankhede’s team raided The Cordilia Cruise going from Mumbai to Goa on 2 October 2021 and arrested Aryan Khan, son of actor Shahrukh Khan on 3 October 2021.
However, due to non-availability of drugs with Aryan Khan, he has been proved innocent in this case. But at that time Sameer Wankhede was accused of demanding extortion to release Aryan Khan. NCB had constituted SIT to investigate this matter.
Based on the SIT report, the CBI has registered a case against Sameer Wankhede under the Prevention of Corruption Act and is probing the matter.
