‘NCB Playing Games With Film Industry’: Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik

Malik has demanded to check Wankhede’s WhatsApp chats, claiming that it will reveal how made-up NCB’s cases are.

NCP member and former housing minister Nawab Malik. Image used for representational purposes. 

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter)

Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik on Thursday, 21 October, once again called out the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) for their “fake case(s)”. He levelled allegations against NCB’s Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede, claiming that Wankhede and his wife were in Maldives and Dubai at the same time as the film industry last year and added, “We are very clear. All this vasuli (extortion) took place in Maldives and Dubai and I will release those photos."

Malik has also claimed that after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput last year, Wankhede was specifically brought into the NCB by the central government. After which, Malik claims, Rhea Chakraborty was implicated in a "fake case" by the NCB, news agency PTI reported.

NCB is currently facing heat as several suspicious questions have arisen since the NCB’s raid on a cruise earlier this month, which led to an alleged recovery of drugs, resulting in the arrest of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan and some other people.

Wankhede was the one who supervised the raid on the cruise off the Mumbai coast.

'NCB Playing Games With the Industry': Nawab Malik

Malik, calling the case “fake”, has repeatedly rejected the NCB’s claim of recovery of banned drugs found from the ship and added that the arrests were made just on the basis of WhatsApp chats.

Malik’s allegations come just weeks after his son-in-law Sameer Khan, who was arrested in a drugs case in January, was granted bail, citing lack of evidence, after eight-and-a-half-months on 27 September.

Following which Malik had alleged that the NCB had implicated his son-in-law in a fake drugs case.

On Thursday, Malik declared that, "After Sushant Singh Rajput's suicide, a special officer was brought in to the NCB. The suicide case was handed over the CBI, but the mystery over his suicide or murder remains unresolved. But, after that, the NCB started playing games with the film industry", PTI reported.

Further, asking Wankhede to clarify whether he was in Dubai, Malik added, "Attempts were made to implicate certain people in false cases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire film industry was in Maldives. What was the officer and his family doing in Maldives and Dubai? This has to be clarified by Sameer Wankhede.”

Malik had earlier demanded to check Wankhede’s WhatsApp chats, claiming that it will reveal how made-up NCB’s cases are.

(With inputs from PTI.)