ED files money laundering case against Ex-NCB Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede

The Enforcement Directorate has registered a money laundering case against former Mumbai NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede taking cognisance of a CBI FIR in from superstar Shah Rukh Khan's family to spare his son in a drugs case, official sources said Saturday.

The central agency has booked the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said. Some former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officials have also been summoned.

Wankhede, a 2008-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer of the Customs and Indirect Taxes cadre, has moved the Bombay High Court seeking protection from any coercive action by the anti-money laundering agency.

He was booked by the CBI in May last year on charges of seeking Rs 25-crore bribe for not framing Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan in the drugs-on-cruise case, officials had said. Aryan Khan was arrested in the alleged drug bust case on the Cordelia cruise ship on October 2, 2021.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booked Wankhede and others for alleged criminal conspiracy (120-B IPC), and threat of extortion (388 IPC) besides provisions pertaining to bribery under the Prevention of Corruption Act on a complaint from the NCB.

A year later, the NCB filed a charge sheet in the drugs-on-cruise case against 14 accused but gave a clean chit to Aryan Khan.

The much-hyped case took a twist when an 'independent witness' had claimed in 2021 that Rs 25 crore was demanded by an NCB official and other persons, including a witness Gosavi, to let off Aryan Khan.

The NCB later conducted an internal vigilance probe against Wankhede and others and shared the contents with CBI leading to registration of a case against him.