ED assures HC: No arrest for Sameer Wankhede in money laundering case until March 1

A division bench comprising Justices P. D. Naik and N. R. Borkar has accepted the plea and scheduled Wankhede’s petition against the case for March 1. The bench has instructed the investigative agency to furnish a copy of the ECIR (complaint) on the said date.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) initiated a money laundering investigation against Wankhede following the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) FIR alleging a ₹25-crore bribe demand from superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s family to spare his son in a drug-related case.

Earlier this month, Wankhede filed a petition in the high court seeking to dismiss the ED’s case. Additionally, he requested interim protection from coercive measures and a halt to the investigation.

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Last week, the probe agency announced that there would be no arrest or coercive action against Wankhede until February 20. On Tuesday, the ED’s counsel, Sandesh Patil, informed the court that Solicitor General Tushar Mehta would represent the case and sought an adjournment. Patil assured the court that the previous commitment of no arrest or coercive action would remain in effect until the hearing of the plea.

The court accepted this assurance and rescheduled the hearing for March 1. Furthermore, it postponed another petition filed by Wankhede last year against the extortion and bribery charges filed by the CBI until March 27.

In his plea against the money laundering case, Wankhede, a 2008-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, alleged that the ED’s actions were driven by malice and vendetta. He claimed that although the ECIR was registered last year, summons were issued to some Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officers only after he filed a complaint against NCB’s deputy director Gyaneshwar Singh last month, seeking action under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

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Wankhede further alleged that Singh and other influential individuals had orchestrated the involvement of agencies such as the CBI, ED, and NCB to implicate him in false charges.

The CBI had booked Wankhede in May last year on charges of soliciting a ₹25 crore bribe to refrain from implicating Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan in a drug-related case. Wankhede and others were charged under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 388 (threat of extortion) of the Indian Penal Code, along with provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, based on a complaint from the NCB.

Aryan Khan was arrested in the drug bust case on the Cordelia cruise ship on October 2, 2021. Subsequently, the NCB filed a chargesheet against 14 accused in the case but cleared Aryan of any wrongdoing.

The case attracted attention when an ‘independent witness’ alleged in 2021 that ₹25 crore was demanded by an NCB official and others to exonerate Aryan Khan. The NCB initiated an internal vigilance probe against Wankhede and others and shared its findings with the CBI, resulting in the filing of a case against him.