Cordelia drug bust case: SET referred to wrong I-note, Wankhede tells HC

Sameer Wankhede, Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) former Mumbai zonal director, told the Bombay high court on Thursday that the report of the agency’s special enquiry team (SET), which the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) relied on to register an FIR against him, was vitiated and hence, it could not be treated as evidence.

Read here: NCB 'twisted facts, ulterior motive to give Aryan Khan clean' chit: Sameer Wankhede tells Bombay HC

The IRS officer is accused of demanding ₹25 crore from the family of Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, to let him off in the Cordelia cruise drug bust case.

Wankhede has claimed in his affidavit that the intelligence information report, known as I-note, referred to by the SET was not the one based on which the NCB zonal unit had carried out the raid on Goa-bound Cordelia on October 2, 2021.

The note that was prepared by investigation officer Haresh Gangan around 7.30am that day and was shared with superintendent V V Singh prior to the constitution of the raiding party had only 10 names, the affidavit said. However, the SET claimed it had 27 names which was later reduced to 10 by Wankhede, the affidavit added.

Besides, the I-note with 27 names which the SET deemed original was unsigned and without any file noting and was in the form of a picture taken from a phone containing the alleged list of names, Wankhede claimed.

“The SET made these frivolous observations to justify its decision to give a clean chit to Aryan Khan. The allegation against the petitioner (Wankhede) is nothing but a figment of Gyaneshwar Singh-led SET’s imagination,” the affidavit said.

The affidavit was filed as a reply to the NCB’s affidavit which was submitted in response to the IRS officer’s petition seeking to quash the CBI’s FIR.

A division bench of justice A S Gadkari and justice S G Dige accepted Wankhede’s request for an adjournment so that he could amend his petition and posted hearing to June 23. The bench also extended the interim protection from coercive action granted to Wankhede for two weeks.

Justifying his claim that the SET had tried to protect Aryan Khan, the affidavit said, “The SET has challenged the judicial process by not filing an investigation report against Aryan Khan as mandated by the Criminal Procedure Code either in the form of a chargesheet or a closure report.”

Wankhede further referred to the 10-minute phone recording he had with the NCB’s department legal advisor who said that the draft complaint prepared by him was changed to benefit Aryan Khan and some other suspects in the Cordelia drug bust case.

Read here: Cruise drug bust case: CBI seeks recall of protection to Sameer Wankhede

The SET acted in “malice to harass officials by suppressing material facts and evidence” and the CBI did not have a lawful prior sanction as required under section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, Wankhede said in the affidavit and refuted the allegations that his foreign trips and expensive accessories were due to gratification received for letting off people in drugs cases.

The CBI on May 11 filed an FIR against Wankhede, four others and unknown persons based on a written complaint by the NCB. The complaint referred to the SET report of October 25, 2021, to allege that there was substance in the allegations that Wankhede, his subordinate officers, two private persons and other unknown persons had attempted to extort ₹25 crore from Aryan Khan’s family.