Sameer Wankhede, former zonal director of the
Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), has urged the Bombay High Court to transfer the
probe into an atrocities case against NCP leader Nawab Malik to an independent
agency like the CBI.
Wankhede, an additional commissioner in the
Directorate General of Taxpayer Services and a member of the Mahar Scheduled
Caste, alleged in his plea that police inaction in the matter has caused him
and his family significant mental distress and humiliation.
The Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officer had in
August 2022 lodged a complaint with the suburban Goregaon police against Malik
under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The complaint alleged that Malik had during interviews
and on social media made defamatory remarks against Wankhede and his family
members based on his caste.
Malik has neither been arrested in the case nor has
the chargesheet been filed till date.
In his petition filed on November 20 in HC, Wankhede
claimed that the police have not probed the matter yet. He has sought the case
to be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The IRS officer also sought for the probe to be
monitored by the court.
The petition is likely to be taken up for hearing on
November 28.
The lackadaisical approach of the police machinery
has caused grave injustice to the pain and mental distress suffered by the
petitioner (Wankhede) and his family members on being humiliated and defamed on
the basis of their caste and race, the plea said.
It added that in 2021, Wankhede's father had filed a
defamation suit in HC against Malik and the court had then directed the leader
from the NCP, headed by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, to desist
from making any further remarks.
Despite the restraining order, Malik continued to
make slanderous and defamatory comments against Wankhede and his family
members, the petition claimed.
The respondent no. 2 (Malik) wields political power
and has hence influenced the police machinery and thereby tampering with the
probe in the case, it added.
Wankhede claimed that Malik made the remarks after
he arrested his son-in-law Sameer Khan in a drug case in 2021.
The IRS officer alleged that after Sameer Khan's
arrest, Malik launched a sustained campaign to defame and humiliate him and his
family on social media and television, targeting their caste and questioning
the authenticity of Wankhede's caste certificate.
Earlier, the officer had also filed a complaint with
the Scheduled Caste Commission in October 2021, seeking action against Malik.
Wankhede had come under the spotlight after his then
NCB team arrested actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan following an alleged
drug seizure on board the Cordelia cruise ship in Mumbai in October 2021. Aryan
was granted bail by the high court after three weeks.