Wankhede out of Aryan Khan case but will still help NCB team

The Mumbai director of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Sameer Wankhede, is not out of the picture yet in the Aryan Khan drug case.

A day after a Delhi special investigation team took over six cases, including the Aryan case, from the NCB’s Mumbai unit, new investigating officer Sanjay Kumar Singh put out that Wankhede’s help will be taken in all the cases.

“We’ve taken over a group of six cases. He (Sameer Wankhede) is the zonal director of Mumbai, we’ll definitely take his assistance in the investigation,” Singh said in Mumbai, according to ANI.

The NCB had on Friday issued a statement saying the case transfer has been precipitated because of the “national and international ramifications” the cases have. “No officer or officers have been removed from their present roles and they will continue to assist the operations branch investigation as required until any specific orders are issued to the contrary,” it said.

On Saturday, the new probe team headed by Singh, who is deputy director-general of NCB, and comprising officials from the NCB headquarters in Delhi reached Mumbai.

Wankhede, after the case transfer was announced on Friday, reportedly said: “I’ve not been removed from the investigation. It was my writ petition in court that the matter should be probed by a central agency. So Aryan case and Sameer Khan case are being probed by Delhi NCB’s SIT. It’s coordination between the NCB teams of Delhi and Mumbai.”

Wankhede is facing an internal vigilance investigation after Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik accused him of extortion and other irregularities.

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