Sameer Wankhede Booked for Alleged Fraud, Providing False Info on Oath to Obtain Illegal Bar License

Sameer Wankhede, the former Mumbai zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau, has been booked by the Thane police for allegedly giving false information on oath, cheating and forgery in connection with a licence that he had procured for a bar and hotel owned by him in Navi Mumbai.

The case registered at the Kopari police station is based on the complaint filed by Excise Inspector Satyawan Gogavale, who accused Wankhede of fraudulently obtaining license of Sadguru Beer Bar in Vashi as a 21-year-old, when he was actually 17.

The former divisional director of IRS has been booked under IPC section 181 (related to false statement on oath or affirmation to public servant or person authorised to administer an oath or affirmation), 188 (related to disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 (punishment for forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (related to fraudulence).

On February 2, Thane collector Rajesh Narvekar cancelled the licence granted to Sadguru hotel & bar in Navi Mumbai, owned by Wankhede, on the grounds that the former NCB Mumbai zonal director misrepresented his age in the licence application filed in 1997.

NCP minister Nawab Malik, who has had regular run-ins with Wankhede, took up the matter with Director General, NCB, CVC and state excise commissioner. Malik questioned if a member of the all-India services could carry on his own business and how Wankhede had procured the licence though he was underage on the day he was granted the permit.

The collector has invoked Section 54 of the Prohibition Act for cancelling the bar licence.

Wankhede had then admitted he had obtained the licence much before he had joined the IRS.

Wankhede has been fighting allegations made by Malik that he forged his caste certificate and other documents to secure a job as an IRS officer under the SC quota after clearing the Union Public Service Commission examination.

Malik also alleged that Wankhede, who led the probe in the Mumbai drugs bust case in which actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan was arrested, is Muslim by birth.

Read all the Latest News India and Breaking News here