Just the Beginning: NCP's Nawab Malik After NCB 'Transfers' Aryan Khan Case

Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik said that around 26 cases need to be probed.

File photo of NCB officer Sameer Wankhede.

(Photo: Anupam Gautam/IANS)

Barely minutes after the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) transferred six cases – including the alleged drug-bust case involving Aryan Khan – away from its Mumbai unit headed by Sameer Wankhede, Maharashtra cabinet minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik said on Twitter that this "is just the beginning."

Claiming the existence of around 26 cases that need to be looked into, Malik said that a lot needs to be done to "clean the system."

A Special Investigation Team headed by senior police officer Sanjay Singh will now take over the six cases, which also include the one in which Nawab Malik's son-in-law is involved.

Malik also demanded a SIT probe to investigate Wankhede, who has been accused of seeking a Rs 8 crore pay-off in the Aryan Khan case.

The allegations came to light after Prabhakar Sail – an NCB witness in the Aryan case – claimed in an affidavit that he overheard a conversation between KP Gosavi, Shah Rukh Khan's manager Pooja Dadlani in which a Rs 18 crore deal was allegedly discussed.

Sail, who claims to be Gosavi's bodyguard, asserted that Rs 8 crore out of that Rs 18 crore deal was earmarked for Wankhede. The NCB, on the other hand, has called these allegations 'concocted.'

Not Removed From Investigations: Wankhede 

Meanwhile, both the bureau and Wankhede claimed that he was not removed from his role, while adding that only certain cases were being transferred.

Speaking to NDTV, Wankhede said that the cases were moved out of the Bombay unit following his petition before the Bombay High Court, in which the NCB officer had asked for a CBI or NIA probe into the matter.

"I've not been removed from investigation. It was my writ petition in the Bombay High Court that the matter be probed by a central agency like the CBI or NIA. Based on that, a SIT has now been formed under the leadership of a senior officer..."

Sameer Wankhede to NDTV.

Meanwhile, the NCB itself has initiated a probe headed by a five-member team into allegations against Wankhede.