Sameer Wankhede had arrested Aryan Khan two years ago.
Mumbai:
Sameer Wankhede, the former anti-drugs official who arrested Aryan Khan, the son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, in a drugs case, was granted protection from any “coercive action” on Friday by the Bombay High Court in an extortion case filed against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal director had approached the high court, requesting it to scrap the First Information Report filed against him by the CBI for allegedly demanding Rs 25 crore bribe from Shah Rukh Khan to not implicate Aryan Khan in the drug-on-cruise case.
In the petition moved before a vacation bench of the high court, Mr Wankhede had also sought protection from any coercive action such as arrest.
Aryan Khan was arrested by the NCB on October 3, 2021, after a raid on a cruise ship. He was granted bail by the Bombay High Court after three weeks as the anti-drug agency failed to substantiate its charges against him.
The CBI charged Mr Wankhede and others for alleged criminal conspiracy and threat of extortion, and bribery under the Prevention of Corruption Act on a complaint by the NCB.
The probe agency has alleged that the NCB, Mumbai Zone, had received information in October 2021 related to the consumption and possession of narcotics substances by various individuals on the private cruise ship and that some of its officers conspired and obtained an undue advantage in the form of bribes from the alleged accused.
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday had granted protection from coercive action to Mr Wankhede for five days with the liberty to approach the appropriate forum, which would be the Bombay High Court.
The CBI summoned Mr Wankhede for questioning in Mumbai on Thursday in connection with the case, but he did not appear before the agency’s team.
