'Our family belongs to Scheduled Caste, haven't changed religion': Sameer Wankhede to court

Washim (Maharashtra): 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.

He submitted the affidavit in a defamation complaint filed by his cousin Sanjay Wankhede against former state minister Nawab Malik.

Sanjay Wankhede had filed a complaint at a special court in Washim, seeking registration of a case under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against NCP leader Malik.

Malik had alleged that Sameer Wankhede submitted a fake caste certificate to get a government job.

Following a probe into it, the Mumbai district caste certificate verification committee of the Maharashtra Social Justice Department recently gave a clean chit Sameer Wankhede, saying the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer was not a Muslim by birth and it has been proven that he belonged to Mahar caste, which is a Scheduled Caste.

Complaints filed by Malik and others regarding the caste claim of Sameer Wankhede and the religion of the caste certificate are not substantiated. Hence, the complaints are being rejected due to lack of facts in the complaint, the committee's order had stated.

Sameer Wankhede in the affidavit filed on Thursday stated that "Nawab Malik has committed a crime", and hence he is submitting the affidavit in the court.

He said in the affidavit that Sanjay Wankhede, a resident of Warud in Washim, is his cousin brother and their "family belongs to the SC community and has not embraced any other religion".

Sameer Wankhede also said that he had taken action against Malik's son-in-law Sameer Khan in a drugs case after which the NCP leader levelled personal allegations against him though media, claiming he was a Muslim and questioned his birth certificate.

The IRS officer further said Malik allegation's not only defamed him, but also defamed and insulted his cousin Sanjay Wankhede.

Sameer Wankhede had come into limelight following the NCB's high-profile raids in October 2021 on a Mumbai cruise after which the agency arrested actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan and 19 others, and claimed to have also seized some narcotics.

Published on: Thursday, August 25, 2022, 03:53 PM IST