IRS officer and former NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede has approached the Bombay High Court challenging the show cause notice issued to him by the Mumbai District Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee asking why his caste certificate should not be confiscated.
Wankhede shot to fame after arrest of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan Khan, in the Cordelia Cruise drug bust case. A special investigation team comprising officers from Delhi NCB is now investigating the case.
The caste scrutiny committee was hearing a complaint filed by Maharashtra cabinet minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik against Wankhede. Malik is at present in custody in an alleged money laundering case.
On April 29, the committee issued Wankhede a show cause notice asking him why his caste certificate dated March 5, 2008, according to which he belongs to ‘Mahar’ community, should not be cancelled. The committee said that as per complaints, documents, etc, prove that Wankhede belongs to a Muslim caste.
Seeking quashing of the notice, Wankhede has claimed that it is illegal, arbitrary and issued without giving him an opportunity to defend himself. Pending hearing in the petition, he has sought stay on the operation of the notice.
Wankhede has sought either appointment of committee headed by a retired high court to enquire into his caste certificate or transfer the inquiry to the National Commission of Scheduled Caste (NCSC), Delhi.
According to Wankhede’s plea, the panel did not pay heed to his objections regarding Malik’s locus standi to file the complaint. The NCSC had in fact asked the district committee to expedite the matter.
Malik had alleged that Wankhede had submitted false documents to secure a job as an IRS officer from SC quota after clearing the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination. Besides, Wankhede is a Muslim by birth and his father’s name was Dawood and not Dnyandev, alleged Malik.
Wankhede has said that the entire family on his father’s side has caste certificates and none of their certificates have been questioned.
He has further contended that since his mother is a Muslim, at the time of his birth, without his father’s consent the name ‘Dawood K Wankhede’ was incorrectly provided to the concerned hospital. Also, ‘Muslim’ was incorrectly recorded in the ‘Register of Birth in Greater Bombay’ against the category of ‘Race, Caste or Nationality’.
His school also incorrectly reflected ‘Muslim’ as his caste between the years 1985 and 1989. These records were corrected subsequently.
The petition is likely to come up for hearing in the first week of June.
