NCP Minister stands firm on his allegations against NCB official

Sameer Wankhede family hiding their identities since 2015, says Nawab Malik

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik on Sunday said he stood firm on his claims that Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede was a Muslim by birth and had produced a ‘bogus’ caste certificate to secure a government job.

Speaking in Mumbai, Mr. Malik said he was not fighting a battle of caste or religion, but underscoring how a government job was obtained on a phoney caste certificate.

Fight is against fraud

“I stand by my statement that Sameer Wankhede is a Muslim and so is his family…he [Mr. Wankhede] secured his post by forging an SC certificate thereby taking away the rights of a poor SC candidate. My fight is against fraud and certainly not any religion or caste,” he said.

He further alleged that the Wankhede family had been hiding their identities since 2015.

“The person whose name was ‘Dawood Wankhede’ [reference to Mr. Wankhede’s father] on his Facebook page started writing his name as ‘Dnyandev Wankhede’ when they realised that his son’s job was under threat. Likewise, Yasmeen Wankhede [Mr. Wankhede’s sister] became Jasmine Wankhede,” Mr. Malik said.

Mr. Malik, who has been consistently targeting Mr. Wankhede after the latter had led the October 2 raid on the cruise ship in which drugs were allegedly recovered, has repeatedly been claiming that the entire NCB operation during which actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan and others were held was ‘fake’.

Criticising vice-chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) Arun Halder for claiming before the media that Mr. Wankhede had not committed any fraud, Mr. Malik said the NCSC member had failed to maintain the dignity of his post.

“Arun Halder may be a BJP leader but he has been appointed to a constitutional post. He should verify all facts of information he has been given, prepare his report and submit it to Parliament, instead of coming before the media and commenting that Wankhede did not convert [to Islam],” he said.

Mr. Malik said when he began raising allegations against the NCB official, people he knew had urged him to stop.

“These people had told me that Shah Rukh Khan was being told that his son is trapped as he [Mr. Khan] spoke his mind… Some people even cautioned me that I could lose my life [in exposing] matters relating to drugs…attempts were made to silence me. But I was firm that I would take this case to a logical end,” the NCP leader said.

Hitting out at BJP leader Kirit Somaiya’s ‘warning’ that the latter would soon be doing another ‘expose’ pertaining to three Ministers in the Maha Vikas Aghadi Government and their sons-in-laws, Mr. Malik said he too would expose so many skeletons in the BJP’s cupboard that their leaders would not have the courage to face the State’s public.

Also read | Amid allegations against NCB official Wankhede, his wife seeks support from Maharashtra CM

‘This is only interval’

“The picture is still on. This is only the interval. The person who took Aryan Khan is now in police custody himself [shadowy NCB witness Kiran Gosavi]… The roles in this drama have been reversed…those who were framing charges are now behind bars,” said Mr. Malik.

Backing Mr. Malik, NCP MP Supriya Sule (party chief Sharad Pawar’s daughter), demanded that the Centre must answer why Mr. Khan had to spend more than 25 days in jail.

“I speak first as a mother and then as a people’s representative…. This is a matter of grief for any mother…it is learned that nothing was found on the person of Aryan Khan. So, if he was innocent why was he forced to stay in jail for 25 days?” Ms. Sule asked, criticising the misuse of probe agencies by the BJP-ruled Government at the Centre.

Remarking that Bollywood and its stars were known throughout the world, the NCP MP from Baramati said attempts by officials of a Central agency to maliciously defame the industry was akin to defaming the country in a sense.

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