Mumbai: The caste scrutiny committee on Saturday gave a clean chit to former NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede in the case of alleged forgery of the caste certificate to get government jobs. Wankhede had landed in controversy after former Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik alleged that the officer had used a fake caste certificate to get government jobs. Malik claimed that Wankhede was a Muslim but he got the job under the reserved category.
"Sameer and his father Gyandev Wankhede renounced Hinduism and converted to Islam. It does not prove that the conversion has been done properly," read the order.
However, now the caste committee has given him a clean chit saying he wasn't a Muslim by birth. The order said that it was not proven that Wankhede and his father converted to Islam "but it's proven that they belonged to Mahar-37 Scheduled Caste", according to news agency ANI.
After the allegations, Sameer Wankhede had in November last year visited the National Commission for Scheduled Castes in Delhi and presented his case before the Commission. Vijay Sampla, chairman of the commission, said that documents provided by Sameer would be verified with the Maharashtra government. "If the documents are found valid then no one can take action against him on the basis of his documents," he had said.
In October last year, National Commission for Scheduled Castes Vice Chairmen Arun Haldar visited the residence Wankhede to see some original documents.
The charges against Wankhede came right after he raided a cruise ship and arrested Aryan Khan, son of Shah Rukh Khan, in connection with a drugs racket case. As the probe began, the NCP leader claimed that Aryan was being framed and that the entire probe was shoddy. In a series of tweets, Malik claimed that his caste certificate was also fake. The then Maharashtra government said it would investigate the fake certificate case against Wankhede. Aryan Khan was recently given clean chit as no evidence was found against him.