Sameer Wankhede files case against Nawab Malik in wake of clean chit by caste panel

Former Mumbai Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officer Sameer Wankhede has filed a defamation complaint against NCP's Nawab Malik, after the former received a clean chit from a caste panel.

Wankhede was being probed for allegedly submitting a fake caste certificate for getting a government job. Malik, a former cabinet minister in the Maharashtra government, had alleged that Wankhede had submitted a fake caste certificate to get a government job.

However, the caste certificate verification committee of the Maharashtra Social Justice Department gave a clean chit to Wankhede.

Following this, Wankhede filed a defamation suit against Malik, who is behind bars in an alleged money laundering case, at Goregaon police station under sections 500 (punishment for defamation), 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The district caste certificate verification committee in its order on Friday had said that the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer was not a Muslim by birth and it has been proven that he belonged to the Mahar caste, which is a Scheduled Caste (SC).

Complaints filed by Malik and others regarding the caste claim of Wankhede and regarding the religion of the caste certificate are not substantiated, following which complaints are being rejected due to a lack of facts in the complaint, the order stated.

Sameer Wankhede had come into the limelight following the high-profile October, 2021 raids by the NCB on a Mumbai cruise after which the agency had arrested Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, and 19 others and claimed to have seized some narcotics too. The NCB later gave a clean chit to Aryan Khan.