Show your petition challenging NCB notices is maintainable: HC to Sameer Wankhede

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday asked former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal director and IRS officer Sameer Wankhede to demonstrate the maintainability of the petition he filed challenging the notices issued by the Narcotics Control Bureau. These notices were issued as part of a preliminary inquiry against him for alleged irregularities in two investigations he conducted during his tenure with the NCB.

A bench comprising Justice Revati Mohite Dere and Justice Manjusha Deshpande noted several overlaps in Wankhede’s petitions challenged before the Bombay high court and the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) in Delhi. The judges emphasised that since the probes against him by various agencies like the CBI and the ED were in Delhi, Wankhede needed to prove the maintainability of his petition filed before the Bombay high court.

Earlier, on April 1, the court had restrained the NCB from taking coercive action against Wankhede until April 10, after the agency sent him fresh notices for alleged irregularities in the two cases he was investigating as Mumbai zonal director.

Sources disclosed to HT that the allegations revolved around irregularities in the arrest of a Nigerian drug peddler and a purported drug case involving UK-based actress Sapna Pabbi. In one instance, it was claimed that the NCB coerced an accused to pose as a customer to entrap the Nigerian peddler. In another, Pabbi was charged after the seizure of a psychotropic substance and tablets from her residence.

During the hearing, Wankhede’s counsel, senior advocate Rajiv Chavan, clarified that the litigation before the CAT pertained to different inquiries conducted by different NCB officials. However, the NCB argued that some notices overlapped with those challenged before the CAT.

Chavan referred to a CAT order where the NCB challenged the Delhi bench’s jurisdiction despite the case mainly arising in Mumbai. The bench, after reviewing the objections recorded in the CAT order, directed the NCB to present its replies filed before the tribunal. “If you have objected to the jurisdiction, we will have to examine it; you cannot leave a person remediless like this,” the court remarked.

The court asked Chavan to provide a detailed chart of all proceedings before the tribunal for further examination, and adjourned the matter to April 23.