Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) Mumbai Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede was questioned on Wednesday by a five-member vigilance probe team in connection with the allegations of extortion in the Mumbai cruise drugs case, said NCB's Deputy Director General (DDG)-northern region Gyaneshwar Singh, who is heading the departmental vigilance probe into the allegations of extortion.
Meanwhile, Wankhede will remain the investigating officer in the high-profile case until substantial information is found against him, added Singh.
"Sameer Wankhede was questioned today. He submitted case related documents that were sought. If needed, he'll be questioned further. He'll remain the investigating officer in the drugs-on-cruise ship case until substantial information is found against him," news agency ANI quoted Gyaneshwar Singh as saying.
A five-member vigilance probe team, which landed in Mumbai in the morning, started its probe and collected some documents and recordings from the NCB office at Ballard Estate in south Mumbai.
The NCB has ordered a vigilance inquiry into the claims made by a witness, Prabhakar Sail, in the cruise drugs case of an extortion bid of Rs 25 crore by some agency officials, including Sameer Wankhede, to let off Aryan Khan, the son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan.
Wankhede, who is leading the probe in the drugs case, visited the NCB's headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday and spent over two hours.
Sources earlier told news agency PTI that the inquiry will also look at the aspect of KP Gosavi, another NCB independent witness in the case, being in close proximity of Aryan Khan after the raids, and the procedures followed by the sleuths while entrusting custody of all the accused arrested on October 3 from the international cruise terminal in Mumbai.
Photos and videos of Gosavi with Aryan Khan have gone viral on social media and other news platforms.
The role of all the officers and witnesses involved in the case will be probed and it will be recorded if they followed the NCB manual and procedures mentioned in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act during such operations, they said.
(With PTI inputs)
