NCB's Sameer Wankhede to appear before caste certificate scrutiny committee today in religion-caste controversy case

Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede is on Tuesday set to appear before the Mumbai district caste certificate scrutiny committee, which is investigating the allegations regarding the officer's caste certificate.

The summons was issued by the commission late last month based on a complaint lodged by Ashok Kamble, the president of the Maharashtra unit of the Bhim Army,. Kamble alleged Wankhede provided false information about himself to obtain a ‘Mahar’ caste certificate for a government job.

In addition to Kamble, Dalit activist Manoj Sansare has also joined in as another complainant in the case.

According to allegations raised by both of them, Wankhede is Muslim by birth and got married in accordance with Sharia and the officer allegedly obtained a bogus certificate to further his professional gains.

The Mumbai district caste certificate scrutiny committee took cognizance of the complaints and held its first hearing on November 30.

Advocate Nitin Satpute, representing both the complainants, presented two documents before the committee—a photocopy of Sameer Wankhede's birth certificate and another photocopy of his caste certificate issued by the Greater Mumbai executive magistrate.

Based on these documents, the committee then decided to initiate a probe into the caste certificate issue and summoned Wankhede for its next hearing at 3pm on December 14.

The religion-caste controversy against Sameer Wankhede, the man behind the arrest of Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan in a high-profile drugs-on-cruise case in October, was first raised by Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik, whose son-in-law Sameer Khan was also arrested by a team led by the NCB officer.

Malik pointed Wankhede married Shabana Quraishi in 2006 according to Islamic rituals, and alleged that despite being a Muslim, the NCB zonal director “forged” a Scheduled Caste certificate to get a government job in the SC quota.

Though Wankhede's first wife did not comment on the issue, his former father-in-law Dr Zaheed Quraishi said he knew the NCB officer's family as Muslims. He also confirmed that Sameer Wankhede practised Islam at the time when he married Shabana. The government job came a year after the Wankhede's first marriage, his former father-in-law said.

It is, however, to be noted that the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) had earlier found that Sameer Wankhede's caste certificates were original and that there were no mal-intentions involved.

Sameer Wankhede's father Dnyandev Wankhede also approached the Bombay high court asking it to pass an order prohibiting Nawab Malik from tweeting about the controversy at hand.

In a major win for the Wankhede family, the minister later tendered an “unconditional apology” before the court for remarks in violation of a previous undertaking of his promising not to make any comments on Sameer Wankhede's past conduct in the discharge of official duty.