Sameer Wankhede urges HC to direct CBI to follow gag order

MUMBAI: Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officer Sameer Wankhede, who has been booked on corruption charges in relation to the Cordelia cruise drugs bust case, requested the Bombay high court on Thursday to direct the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to refrain from releasing information to the media. He asked that the agency be restrained through a gag order similar to the one against Wankhede.

Wankhede complained that information about witnesses summoned by the CBI for questioning was being leaked to the press. He said that as he was complying with the restraint order on him, he expected the order to be applicable to CBI as well.

The agency, however, denied leaking any information. It also informed the HC that solicitor general Tushar Mehta would be able to appear for the agency on August 21. Hence, the HC extended the interim protection from coercive action to Wankhede till then.

The division bench of justice AS Gadkari and justice SG Dige was hearing Wankhede’s petition challenging the FIR registered by the CBI on May 11. Senior advocate Aabad Ponda informed the court about CBI leaking information to the press.

Ponda submitted that there was a news report which stated that witnesses were being summoned by the central agency. He added that as Wankhede had given an undertaking that he would not speak to the media and there was no allegation that he had spoken to the media, the question then was who leaked the information.

“The reason given in laying down the condition was that it was a sensitive case. Sanctity should be maintained by both sides (also by the CBI),” he argued. Ponda then sought a direction to CBI to follow the condition of ‘no press statements’ as well.

This prompted the bench to question the CBI, “Rule made applicable to the petitioner is equally applicable to you (CBI). How does the press know about this (information about witnesses summoned)?”

Advocate Kuldeep Patil for the CBI assured the bench that none of the CBI officers involved in the case had spoken to the press or leaked any information. On being asked as to who could have done it, Patil said it could have been any of the witnesses.

When the bench persisted on knowing how the information was leaked, Patil assured the bench that an inquiry would be initiated.

The case pertains to alleged conspiracy hatched by then Narcotics Control Bureau officers and some private individuals to extort ₹25-crore from actor Shah Rukh Khan in exchange for not booking his son Aryan Khan in the Cordelia cruise ship drugs bust case.