Retired Mumbai ACP: False drug case foisted on my son by NCB, Sameer Wankhede

Mumbai :  Allegations of wrongdoing against the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and its zonal director Sameer Wankhede emerged in the high-profile Mumbai cruise drugs case, now a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) in Mumbai has claimed that his son was arrested by the NCB in a false drugs case earlier this year.

Former cop Anant Kenjale, father of 26-year-old Shreyas, has filed an affidavit to this effect.

Additionally, accused Shreyas Kenjale has approached the court stating that Sameer Wankhede was present at the time of arrest but the same has not been recorded in the Panchnama.

Shreyas Kenjale’s miscellaneous application prays for CCTV footage from his apartment building to be taken on record so his claim can be verified. The relevant footage has been procured by the family of the accused along with 65B certificate to make it admissible under the Indian Evidence Act.

Shreyas was arrested by the NCB on the evening of June 22 this year at 8pm under Sections 8(c), 20(b)(ii)(A), 22(c), 27, 27A, 28 and 29 of the NDPS Act.

The application of the accused states that the movement of NCB officers including Sameer Wankhede as captured in CCTV footage on the night of the arrest contradicts “the genuineness of the panchnama”.

It says that Sameer Wankhede entered the building from the main gate at 9.47 pm on the night of the arrest. A few minutes later, he went up in the elevator and then he can be seen with officers like VV Singh, who was also the investigating officer in the Aryan Khan case

The presence of Sameer Wankhede is not mentioned in the panchnama. However, the CCTV recordings indicate that he had come to the premises of Anant Kenjale and left the building around 10.50 pm. The prosecution has not given any reasons why his presence is not noted in the panchnama, the application states.

The NCB had allegedly recovered 300 grams of a green leafy substance purported to be ganja and 436 LSD blots from Shreyas Kenjale. The panchnama states that the recovered ganja was packed and sealed.

However, Kenjale’s application says, In the CCTV footage, the NCB team is seen departing from the lobby along with Shreyas Kenjale and getting out of the lift at 11.25 pm (unsealed bag suspected).