NCB Mumbai director Wankhede visits Delhi headquarters

It was not confirmed if Wankhede met NCB director general DG S N Pradhan.However, sources indicated that the top brass of the federal anti-narcotics agency met on Tuesday for a review meeting of various zonal offices of the agency in the country.Sources close to Wankhede denied that he is being moved from NCB.NCB deputy director general DDG northern region Gyaneshwar Singh, heading the departmental vigilance probe on the allegations of extortion in the drugs-on-cruise case, told reporters outside the NCB office that he did not call anyone for my probe.

Sameer Wankhede, the Narcotics Control Bureau's Mumbai zonal director who is leading the probe in the cruise drugs case in which actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan is arrested, visited the agency's headquarters here on Tuesday and spent over two hours.

The IRS officer entered the NCB office in the R K Puram area through a back entry gate as a huge posse of media personnel were present to cover his visit.

Wankhede is understood to have met his senior officers at the headquarters.

Some people holding placards in support of Wankhede while some posters hailing him were seen outside the NCB headquarters. It was not confirmed if Wankhede met NCB director general (DG) S N Pradhan.

However, sources indicated that the top brass of the federal anti-narcotics agency met on Tuesday for a review meeting of various zonal offices of the agency in the country.

Sources close to Wankhede denied that he is being moved from NCB.

NCB deputy director general (DDG) northern region Gyaneshwar Singh, heading the departmental vigilance probe on the allegations of extortion in the drugs-on-cruise case, told reporters outside the NCB office that he ''did not call anyone for my probe''. ''When it is required, I will call him (Wankhede),'' Singh, an IPS officer, said. He added that he was not travelling to Mumbai on Tuesday.

Wankhede's visit to the national capital comes in the backdrop of the NCB ordering a vigilance inquiry into the allegations made by Prabhakar Sail, an independent witness in the cruise drugs case, of an extortion bid of Rs 25 crore by some agency officials, including the Mumbai zonal director, and others for letting off Aryan Khan.

The officer had told media persons outside the IGI Airport on Monday that he has not been summoned by the agency but has some work here adding he did a fair job in the drugs-on-cruise case.

Gyaneshwar Singh and his team may, however, travel to Mumbai on Wednesday for conducting the inquiry.

Sources said the inquiry will also look at the aspect of K P Gosavi, another NCB independent witness in the case, being in close proximity of Aryan Khan after the raids, and the procedures followed by the sleuths while entrusting custody of all the accused arrested on October 3 from the international cruise terminal, Mumbai.

Photos and videos of Gosavi with Aryan Khan have gone viral on social media and other news platforms.

The role of all the officers and witnesses involved in the case will be probed and it will be recorded if they followed the NCB manual and procedures mentioned in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act during such operations, they said.

Wankhede on Sunday had written to Mumbai Police commissioner Hemant Nagrale, seeking protection from likely legal action ''being planned'' against him by unknown persons to falsely frame him concerning an alleged vigilance-related issue.

On Monday, he failed to get any relief related to an affidavit on the sensational extortion claims made by Sail, with a special court saying it cannot pass a blanket order barring courts from taking cognisance of the document.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)