The tenure of Indian Revenue Service officer Sameer Wankhede with the Narcotics Control Bureau, which was marked by controversy, would end on December 31, official sources said on Friday.
Stepping up its attack on the Narcotics Control Bureau, the Nationalist Congress Party on Friday alleged that the anti-drug agency let off two persons after a raid on a cruise ship off Mumbai coast recently, with one of them being the brother-in-law of a 'high-profile' BJP leader.
Former Mumbai zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau Sameer Wankhede on Thursday filed an affidavit in a court in Maharashtra's Washim district, stating their family belongs to a Scheduled Caste community and has not embraced any other religion.
In a suit filed before a civil court in suburban Borivali last month, Wankhede and his wife, actor Kranti Redkar, have sought a permanent injunction against Google India, Facebook India online services and Twitter Communications India on allowing any 'defamatory' post against them on their platforms.
Malik last week alleged that the NCB's raid on the cruise ship off the Mumbai coast on October 2 was 'fake', and no narcotic drugs were found during it.
The agency had called him a hostile witness after he made the allegations.
Referring to the statement of NCP leader Nawab Malik in which he had cast aspersions on NCB, the plea said it's high time the NCB is probed by a top court judge to unravel the truth.
The 62-year-old Nationalist Congress Party leader was taken into custody shortly before 3 pm after he was questioned for about six hours at the ED office in south Mumbai's Ballard Estate area.
Sunil Patil, whom former Mumbai Bharatiya Janata Party youth wing chief Mohit Bharatiya has accused of being the mastermind of the cruise drugs episode, appeared before the Mumbai Police's Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Sunday evening to record his statement, an official said.
Police informed that Gosavi is wanted in a case registered with Pune city police in 2018, wherein a chargesheet has been submitted to the court.
The DMK also warned of legal action against those who attempt to link Sadiq with either the party or its leaders.
NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede should be suspended following the court's findings, he said.
The JD(U)-BJP alliance also lambasted the actress for lodging a 'baseless' first information report against the sisters of the deceased actor and questioned the 'support' extended to her by the Uddhav Thackeray government in Maharashtra, for 'reasons the Shiv Sena knows better'.
Maharashtra minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik on Saturday claimed that some unidentified persons tried to conduct a recce of his residence in Mumbai and also tried to gather information about himself and his family members.
An official from the NCB said Wankhede was not even in service when the alleged case took place.
The PIL has also sought a direction to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to frame the national witness protection scheme as recommended in various reports of the Law Commission.
Agency sleuths claimed he was arrested after they obtained some "vital leads" into the narcotics case registered against Rajput's live-partner Rhea Chakraborty and others.
Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik on Saturday asked why the NCB's zonal director Sameer Wankhede used a "family friend" as an independent witness in three investigations.
Sushant Singh Rajput's father K K Singh alleged that Rhea Chakraborty is the "murderer" of his son and demanded her arrest.
Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik on Tuesday sought to know why the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) was saving Kashif Khan, one of the organisers of the cruise party where the NCB conducted a raid last month, and what was his relationship with the anti-drugs agency officer Sameer Wankhede.
"Is there a rule of law or (a rule of) raids in Maharashtra? This is the question which comes to one's mind considering the record-break raids being conducted through Central investigating agencies," Raut wrote in the weekly column 'Rokhthok' in the Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' of which he is the executive editor.
A Mumbai resident has filed a public interest litigation in the Bombay high court, seeking directions to Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik to refrain from making any comments against the NCB.
A special court here which granted bail to Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik's son-in-law Sameer Khan has observed that there was no evidence to establish that Khan was involved in drug trafficking.
Fadnavis said, "Nawab Malik and his family members were part of a company which purchased land in Kurla (area of Mumbai) at a very low rate by making some fictitious documents. There are four such land purchase deals where I can firmly say that Malik has entered into land deals with the underworld."
Malik also alleged that Rajput's girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty was implicated in a 'fake case' by the NCB.
Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, Bharatiya also alleged that Deshmukh had met a drug peddler and Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's aide Chinku Pathan at the Sahyadri state guest house in Mumbai when a strict lockdown was in force.
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has asked Maharashtra's chief secretary and director general of police, Mumbai police commissioner and the Union home secretary to appear before it on January 31 for an in-person hearing on former Narcotics Control Bureau zonal director Sameer Wankhede's 'harassment' complaint.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) reached Mumbai on Saturday, a day after the agency transferred investigation in six cases, including the controversial cruise drugs case in which Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan was arrested, to it.
The NCB personnel late Saturday night carried out multiple raids in Mumbai's suburbs, including Goregaon. They also arrested one more person, identified as Shivraj Ramdas, from Santacruz area on Friday night in connection with the case of drugs seizure, the official said.
The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, allies in the Shiv Sena-led Maha Viaks Aghadi government in Maharashtra, on Monday demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation reveal its final finding into the Sushant Singh Rajput death case.
Nawab Malik's daughter Nilofer Malik Khan posted a snapshot of the legal notice, dated November 10, on her Twitter handle on Thursday.
The NCP minister said while fake notes were seized in other states after demonetisation on November 8 2016, there was not a single such instance in Maharashtra.
Malik said he did not buy any property from anyone who is linked to the underworld or is a convict in a bomb blast case. He said by trying to link him with the underworld and bomb blast convicts, Fadnavis is maligning his image.
A special court in Mumbai on Wednesday refused bail to former Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik in an alleged money laundering case linked to a land deal in which fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and his aides were involved.
The witness has been provided protection by the Mumbai police in the wake of revelations he made in his application.
'When she left on June 8 after some kind of fight or break-up she did not think Sushant would die.' 'She did not think his family after his death would level such horrible accusations against her.' 'She did not think three agencies would be tasked to prove her to a bad woman.'
Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik on Thursday accused NCB's zonal director Sameer Wankhede and his family of obtaining two separate certificates of his mother following her death in 2015, each mentioning her as Muslim and Hindu.
Shelar also claimed that the MVA govt was obstructing the Centre's strong actions to tackle the drug menace in the country.
Dnyandev Wankhede, Sameer's father, has sought damages of Rs 1.25 crore from Malik and an order restraining him from making further false or incorrect statements against the Wankhede family.
Officials of the NCB, which filed its chargesheet in a Mumbai court, said Aryan Khan and five others had not been named due to 'lack of sufficient evidence'.
