Sameer Wankhede removed as investigating officer from Aryan Khan drugs case, Delhi NCB's SIT to take over

Sameer Wankhede (Image: ANI)

The report quoted top sources in Delhi as saying that an order has already been issued to take Sameer Wankhede off the Aryan Khan drugs case.

Mutha Ashok Jain, Deputy DG, South-Western Region, NCB was quoted by ANI as saying, “A total of six cases of our zone will now be investigated by Delhi teams (of NCB), including Aryan Khan’s case and five other cases. It was an administrative decision."

Responding to the news, Sameer Wankhede told ANI, "I've not been removed from investigation. It was my writ petition in court that the matter be probed by a central agency. So Aryan case & Sameer Khan case are being probed by Delhi NCB's SIT. It's a coordination b/w NCB teams of Delhi & Mumbai."

 A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of NCB officers has been formed to oversee the transferred cases.

As per the CNN-News18 report, apart from the Aryan Khan case, the one involving Bollywood actor Armaan Kohli has also been transferred to the SIT. Kohli was arrested by the NCB on August 28 after he was allegedly found in possession of 1.3 gm of cocaine.

"Now, the probe will be handled by Senior IPS officer Sanjay Singh," sources said.

Notably, Sameer Wankhede has been in the eye of a political storm following allegations of extortion levelled by Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik.

After the news of the removal of the head of NCB's Mumbai unit from five high-profile cases broke, the NCP leader tweeted: "Sameer Wankhede removed from 5 cases including the Aryan Khan case. There are 26 cases in all that need to be probed. This is just the beginning... a lot more has to be done to clean this system and we will do it."

Sameer Wankhede removed from 5 cases including the Aryan Khan case.
There are 26 cases in all that need to be probed.
This is just the beginning... a lot more has to be done to clean this system and we will do it.

— Nawab Malik نواب ملک नवाब मलिक (@nawabmalikncp) November 5, 2021