2020 Attack on Sameer Wankhede-Led NCB Team in Goregaon Passed Off as Recent

An incident of a team led by NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede being attacked in Goregaon, Mumbai that took place in 2020 was falsely shared as a recent one.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A viral claim on social media states that a team led by Narcotics Control Bureau's (NCB) Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede was attacked by alleged drug peddlers in Goregaon, Mumbai "yesterday evening."

The claim comes in the backdrop of Wankhede investigating the drugs-on-cruise case, involving Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan, and also facing allegations by Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik.

However, we found that while such an incident did happen, it's not a recent one. Rather, the NCB team was attacked in Goregaon in November 2020, and three suspects had then been arrested.

CLAIM

The claim, which is originally in Hindi, mentioned that an NCB team led by Sameer Wankhede was in process of nabbing an alleged drug peddler when a group of 60 people attacked the team in Goregaon area "yesterday evening."

You can view the archived version here.

(Source: Facebook/ Screenshot)

The attack led to two officials suffering injuries, the claim added. It further took a dig at media outlets for not covering the incident and criticised the Uddhav Thackeray-led government and Mumbai police.

The claim saw a widespread presence on Facebook and Twitter and the archived posts can be viewed here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND

We searched on Google with keywords 'NCB Wankhede attacked Goregaon' and came across an article published by Mumbai Mirror on 23 November 2020.

As per the report, an NCB team led by Sameer Wankhede had then been attacked in Goregaon by a group of alleged drug peddlers.

Mumbai Mirror had mentioned about the attack in 2020. 

(Photo: Mumbai Mirror/ Screenshot)

Media outlets such as Hindustan Times and India Today and news agency ANI had also covered the incident in 2020.

Two NCB officers in the team had got injured while they were arresting alleged drug peddlers with LSD. As per the NCB officials, a group of people had damaged their official vehicle with some abusing and pushing them, HT reported.

The India Today article mentioned that over 60 people had gathered in the area to attack the NCB team.

The NCB officials had then reached out to Goregaon police who had arrested three people and had also registered an FIR in connection with the incident.

Further, the image of Wankhede, which is being shared along with the claim, could be traced to an ANI video which was uploaded in September 2020.

In the video, the NCB Zonal Director, who was investigating the drug angle in late actor Sushant Singh's death case, can be heard talking about actor Rhea Chakraborty being summoned .

Evidently, an incident of a team led by NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede being attacked in Goregaon, Mumbai that took place in 2020 is being shared as a recent one.

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