Mumbai: A day after it emerged that a vigilance probe had found several irregularities in the 2021 Cordelia drug bust case and the incarceration of Aryan Khan and 19 others, the National Commission for Schedule Caste has decided to investigate a complaint made by Sameer Wankhede against the man who conducted the vigilance inquiry, deputy director general Gyaneshwar Singh. The commission has also said that till the completion of the inquiry against Singh, no action should be taken against Wankhede by the NCB in the Cordelia case.
In his complaint, Wankhede, former zonal director of the NCB, alleged that Singh harassed and humiliated him for his caste while he was conducting the internal inquiry in the way Wankhede and the NCB had handled the Cordelia drugs bust last year.
Gyaneshwar Singh headed the special vigilance team and has submitted a 3000-page internal vigilance report to the NCB director general Satya Narayan Pradhan. The vigilance department found several irregularities in the probe into the drugs bust on the cruise ship, Cordelia, by Sameer Wankhede and his team. In his report Singh recommended taking departmental action against at least seven NCB officers, including those from the bureau, those on loan during the case, and those in the NCB’s Mumbai office, and some who have already been served charge sheets.
“I had filed a complaint in September this year to NCSC after Singh harassed and humiliated me and others connected to me. The matter is sub-judice so I cannot speak much about the complaint and the commission will look into the matter,” said Sameer Wankhede from Chennai where he is posted at the office of director general of taxpayers’ services. However, as per the Schedule Caste Commission’s own report, Wankhede filed a complaint on October 17, a day before the conclusion of Singh’s vigilance inquiry became public knowledge.
When contacted, Gyaneshwar Singh refused to comment on Wankhede’s allegations. However, another NCB official speaking on the condition of anonymity, said, “Singh’s probe was started last year. If the vigilance team humiliated and harassed Wankhede why did he not complain then, why now after the vigilance report was submitted?”
Singh’s report has found several procedural lapses in the Cordelia investigation as well as other cases probed by Wankhede who then headed NCB’s Mumbai zonal office.