Mumbai: Wankhede's co-accused Sam Dsouza withdraws plea from Bombay High Court

Former NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede's co-accused Sam D'Souza in the Central Bureau of Investigation's extortion case has withdrawn his plea filed before the Bombay High Court in which he had sought protection from coercive action by the agency. This happened after the court indicated that it was not inclined to allow his plea.

The court questioned D'Souza why he did not file an anticipatory bail application before the competent court. The CBI had differentiated between Wankhede's and D'Souza's case. It had contended that while Wankhede who had secured such relief is a public servant and he had challenged the sanction under Prevention of Corruption Act, D'Souza was a private citizen.

Quashing the FIR

The vacation bench of the HC of Justices Abhay Ahujha and MM Sathaye was hearing a plea filed by D'Souza for quashing the corruption FIR. He had also sought interim relief of protection from arrest while he is yet to be decided.

On Friday, Advocate Sandeep Karnik appearing for D'Souza sought parity with Wankhede. The bench responded, "You are riding on his (Wankhede) back. Why not file anticipatory bail application? He was a public servant. You are in a different situation. The impression we had when the matter was circulated was that you are one of the officers."

Plea Opposed

The agency's advocate Advocate Kuldeep Patil had opposed the plea and told the bench that the accusations of extortion against D'Souza are very serious apart from pointing out that he is a private citizen as opposed to Wankhede. Every accused in the case should be treated differently as their plea was on different footings." he submitted.The bench said, "We are refusing interim relief. If you want to simply withdraw the petition, go ahead. We are not granting any protection." D'Souza's lawyer then sought to withdraw the plea, which the court allowed.The CBI has alleged in its FIR that Wankhede and others demand of a bribe of Rs 25 crore from the family members of those arrested in the cruise ship drug bust case of 2021, including from actor Shah Rukh Khan.

D'Souza was also named as an accused along with Wankhede, Kiran Gosavi, then NCB superintendent Vishwa Vijay Singh and then intelligence officer of NCB Mumbai zonal unit Ashish Ranjan.