The man at the centre of the Cordelia cruise drugs case, former zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB, Mumbai), Sameer Wankhede has been transferred to Chennai. Wankhede was transferred to the office of the director general of taxpayers services in Chennai. He would be posted at the said department as an additional director and is likely to take charge of the post on June 10.
"The said department caters to the problems and issues of the taxpayers and is not considered to be completely a side posting as perceived," said a senior government official.
The government sources said that total of 204 IRS officials, including Wankhede were transferred across various departments across the country.
The heat on the NCB to take action against Wankhede for the “shoddy investigation” into the drugs case, in which Aryan Khan was given a clean chit on May 27, had been growing exponentially.
Wankhede, an IRS officer of the 2008 batch, was sent to the NCB Mumbai Zone in august, 2020 "on loan" from the directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) in the wake of the drugs probe being conducted by the agency into the death of 34-year-old actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
He had been serving as the head or the zonal director of the NCB Mumbai Unit since august 31, 2020 and was given some extensions. Wankhede's extended tenure with the NCB ended on december 31, 2021 and as there had been no order for his extension, he has been sent back to his parent organisation dri, which functions as an investigation agency under the central board of indirect taxes and customs (CBIC).
Wankhede has earlier served in airport customs, service tax and national investigation agency as well in mumbai before being posted at the DRI.
