In a relief to former Zonal Director of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Sameer Wankhede, the Mumbai district caste certificate verification committee — which went into the allegation that he used fake caste certificate to join the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) — has given a clean chit to Wankhede and his father Dnyandev Wankhede.
In an order passed on Friday, the caste certificate verification committee ruled that Sameer was not a Muslim by birth. “It has not been proved that Sameer and his father Dnyandev Wankhede had renounced Hinduism to convert to Islam. It is proven that Wankhede and his father in law belong to the Scheduled Caste that is Mahar-37,” it ruled.
The caste committee also said the complaints filed by Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik and others regarding the caste claim of Sameer and regarding the religion of the caste certificate were not substantiated, following which complaints were rejected due to lack of the facts in the complaint, the order said.
Soon after the Mumbai district caste certificate verification committee’s order became public, Sameer tweeted - “Satyameva Jayate” - signifying ‘victory of truth’, and said he and his family had undergone a lot of trauma due to the matter.
It may be recalled that on November 30, 2021, the District Caste Scrutiny Committee, Mumbai city had launched inquiry proceedings against Sameer.
Alluding to Sameer’s marriage to Dr Shabana Qureshi through a nikah ceremony, the advocate stated that if the NCB officer was not a Muslim, he could not have married a girl from the community.
It may be recalled that Sameer, the then Zonal Director NCB, had come into limelight after the anti-drug body arrested Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant, Munmun Dhamecha and five others on October 3 2021, a night after its officials busted a rave party and seized 13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams of MD (Mephedrone), 21 grams of Charas, 22 pills of MDMA (Ecstasy) and Rs 1.33 lakh in cash from Goa-bound Cordelia Cruises’ Empress ship, off the Mumbai coast.