Caste scrutiny committee gives clean chit to Sameer Wankhede: 'Not a Muslim by birth'

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government’s District Caste Certificate Verification Committee (DCCVC) has given a clean chit to former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal officer Sameer Wankhede in the alleged fake caste certificate case.

In a detailed order passed on Friday, the DCCVC upheld Wankhede’s certificate, which said that he belongs to the Mahar-37 scheduled caste. The three member committee also said that he is “not a Muslim by birth”.

The caste scrutiny committee was chaired by Anita Meshram Wankhede and had Salima Tadvi as member and Sunita Mate as member secretary.

Wankhede shot to notoriety in October 2021 after arresting Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan’s son Aryan in an alleged drug bust case on Cordelia cruise. After several controversial turns, the case was handed over to a special investigation team (SIT), comprising NCB officers from Delhi, which later dropped Aryan’s name from the case.

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Wankhede, from the 2008-batch of Indian Revenue Service (IRS), was subsequently transferred out of the NCB.

A complaint about the officer hiding his caste was lodged by former state cabinet minister Nawab Malik and others. The plaint was filed with the DCCVC, alleging that his father, Dnyandev, had converted to Islam. However, for the benefit of acquiring a government job, Wankhede was using a Mahar caste certificate.

The Wankhedes had countered the claims, saying that the issue was being raked up as the officer’s team, while he was heading the NCB, had arrested Sameer Khan, Malik’s son-in-law in a drug case.

The caste scrutiny committee held that the complainants, the NCP leader Malik and others, were not able to substantiate their claim, and said that it is not proved that Sameer Wankhede and his father, Dnyandev, renounced Hinduism and adopted Islam.

Advocate Nitin Satpute, who represented one of the complainants before the committee, expressed disappointment on the decision. He said, “Sameer Wankhede’s caste is already challenged by me in High Court, in writ petition No WPL/26957/2021. We had not much expectation from the caste scrutiny committee, but have faith in the High Court.”