Probe agency seeks time to reply to Sameer Wankhede's plea; no arrest till March 27

Probe agency seeks time to reply to Sameer Wankhede’s plea; no arrest till March 27

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) sought additional time on Friday to respond to Indian Revenue Service officer Sameer Wankhede’s plea in a money-laundering case.Â

An advocate from Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s office informed the bench of Justice PD Naik and NR Borkar that they intended to file a brief reply. Aabad Ponda, representing Wankhede, expressed the desire to file a rejoinder and requested a two-week delay for the hearing.

The bench accepted the request, scheduling the hearing for Wankhede’s petition against ED action on March 27, coinciding with the hearing of his plea against the CBI case, where Mehta is expected to make submissions.

The ED had initiated a money laundering case against Wankhede based on a CBI FIR that alleged a Rs 25-crore bribe demand from actor Shah Rukh Khan’s family to spare his son Aryan Khan in a drugs case. Seeking to quash the ED’s case, Wankhede, the former zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Mumbai, secured an interim order for a stay on the probe and protection from coercive action.

Wankhede, a 2008-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, argued that the ED’s case “smacks of malice and vendetta.” He claimed that while the ECIR was registered last year, summons were issued to some NCB officers only after he filed a complaint against NCB’s Deputy Director Gyaneshwar Singh last month, seeking action under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Accusing Singh and influential individuals of using agencies like the CBI, ED, and NCB to implicate him, Wankhede alleged a conspiracy. The CBI had booked Wankhede in May last year, accusing him of seeking a Rs 25-crore bribe to avoid framing Aryan Khan in the drugs-on-cruise case.Â

Aryan Khan, arrested in October 2021 in the alleged drug bust case on the Cordelia cruise ship, was later cleared in the NCB’s charge-sheet against 14 accused. The CBI registered a case against Wankhede based on the NCB’s internal vigilance probe.

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