Mumbai Feb 21 PTI Former Mumbai NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede on Monday filed two separate petitions in the Bombay High Court urging quashing of the FIR registered against him by Thane police for obtaining a liquor license for a hotel by alleged forgery and also sought restoration of the cancelled license Wankhede claimed that actions initiated against him were vindictive as he had arrested Maharashtra cabinet minister Nawab Maliks son-in-law in a drugs case when he was heading the Mumbai Narcotics Control Bureau NCB unit The plea for quashing of the FIR will be heard by a division bench headed by Justice S S Shinde on Tuesday The civil petition seeking restoration of the license will be heard by a division bench headed by Justice G S Patel on Tuesday In the quashing petition Wankhede has sought interim protection from arrest In both of the pleas Wankhede who is a 2008-batch IRS officer has stated that the action taken against him is out of malice and vindictive as he during his tenure as NCBs zonal director for Mumbai had arrested Maharashtra minister Nawab Maliks son-in-law in a drugs case Wankhedes advocate Vishal Thadani said the action was taken against the NCB officer by the state Excise Department and the police under political pressure Hence Mr Malik has vengeance against Wankhede and has been making false and defamatory statements against the applicant Wankhede the pleas said The FIR was registered against Wankhede by the state excise department in Thanes Kopri police station As per the complaint the documents submitted in 1997 for procuring the license for selling liquor in a restaurant and bar in Wankhedes name were forged Wankhede was a minor 17-year-old when the liquor license was procured in his name the complaint said In his petition seeking restoration of the cancelled license filed through advocate Vishal Thadani Wankhede said that the rules in India do not specify the age for the grant of liquor license The license was granted in October 1997 and has been renewed time and again till the year 2021 Then after my client Wankhede arrested minister Nawab Maliks son-in-law in a drugs case the minister wrote a letter in November 2021 to the Thane excise Collector raising questions on the license Thadani said Pursuant to the letter an inquiry was initiated and three show-cause notices were issued to Wankhede Hearing was given and then the license was cancelled Hence he Wankhede has moved the high court challenging the cancellation and seeking restoration of the license Thadani said PTI SP NSK NSK

Mumbai Nov 24 PTI Dnyandev Wankhede father of NCBs zonal director Sameer Wankhede on Wednesday approached the Bombay High Court challenging its single-judge bench order that had refused to restrain Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik from making comments and putting social media posts against the anti-drug agency officer and his family Dnyandev Wankhede mentioned for urgent hearing his appeal challenging the single bench order and urged a division bench of Justices S J Kathawalla and Milind Jadhav to grant him relief His appeal is likely to be heard by the division bench on Thursday On Monday a single-judge bench of Justice Madhav Jamdar had refused to grant Wankhede any interim relief in his defamation suit filed against Malik a leader of Maharashtras ruling party NCP Wankhede had cited Maliks tweets and public statements whereby the latter had alleged among other things that Sameer Wankhede had been born a Muslim but had falsely claimed that he belonged to a designated Scheduled Caste SC to secure a central government job He had sought as interim relief that Malik be prohibited from making any defamatory statements or tweets social media posts etc against him Sameer Wankhede or any of their family members Justice Jamdar however had held that imposing such a blanket prohibition upon Malik was not possible in the present case The single bench had held that though it seemed apparent that Maliks statements and tweets against the NCB officer had actuated out of malice and animosity the allegations the minister had made against Sameer Wankhede did not seem prima facie on the face of it to be completely false The single bench however had directed Malik to henceforth make public statements or comments against Wankhede and his family only after reasonable verification of facts In his appeal mentioned before the division bench Dnyandev Wankhede contended that since the single bench had held that Maliks allegations against Sameer Wankhede had stemmed out of malice the minister should have been restrained from making further defamatory comments against him and his family PTI AYA NP NP