Former Mumbai NCB chief Sameer Wankhede, who is being questioned by the CBI for allegedly demanding bribe of Rs 25 crore from actor Shah Rukh Khan for not implicating his son Aryan in the Cordelia cruise drug bust case, has claimed to be receiving threats on social media.
Sources told News18 that Wankhede, an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, will meet Mumbai Commissioner of Police Vivek Phansalkar on Monday to apprise him of the situation and request additional security.
Wankhede has reportedly alleged that he and his wife, actor Kranti Redkar, have been receiving vulgar messages and threats.
“My wife Kranti Redkar and I are receiving threats for the last four days and obscene messages on social media. I will write to Mumbai Police Commissioner today about it and demand special security,” news agency ANI quoted Wankhede as saying.
The CBI had booked Wankhede and four others on May 11 for alleged criminal conspiracy and threat of extortion, besides provisions pertaining to bribery under the Prevention of Corruption Act on a complaint by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
The Bombay High Court has directed the CBI not to take any “coercive action”, such as arrest, against Wankhede till May 22. Seeking quashing of the FIR, Wankhede has alleged before the High Court that the “draft complaint” in the 2021 drugs-on-cruise case named Aryan Khan as an accused, but it was later replaced and Aryan’s name was dropped.
Aryan Khan was arrested by the NCB on October 3, 2021, following the alleged drug seizure on board the Cordelia cruise ship off the Mumbai coast. He was granted bail by the High Court three weeks later as the anti-drugs agency failed to substantiate its charges against him.
The CBI alleged that the NCB’s Mumbai zone received information in October 2021 regarding the consumption and possession of narcotic substances by various individuals on the cruise ship, and some NCB officers conspired to get bribes from the accused in return for letting them off.
Wankhede has denied the allegations against him. His petition in the High Court provided transcriptions of phone chats with Shah Rukh Khan during the period Aryan was in NCB custody. It cited Khan pleading with Wankhede to be kind to his son and praising the officer for his “uprightness”.
With PTI inputs
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