CBI's corruption FIR on Sameer Wankhede vindicates NCP neta Nawab Malik's stance

NCP leader Nawab Malik's stand has been vindicated after the CBI registered an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act against NCB's former zonal head Sameer Wankhede for allegedly demanding Rs 50 lakh from actor Shah Rukh Khan in the October 2021 drugs-on-cruise case involving his son Aryan.
Malik was the first politician to raise an alarm over NCB's raid on the cruise ship off Mumbai coast - the anti-narcotics bureau had claimed that most of the guests, including Aryan, had consumed drugs and booked them under the NDPS Act.Malik had dubbed the raid as 'farjiwada' (fraud) and claimed that it was Wankhede's plan to implicate Aryan and then blackmail his actor father for his release.
Malik, who is currently in jail in a money-laundering case by the ED, had done his homework before making the allegations: He found that besides Wankhede, a few more NCB officials were involved in the 'fake' raid and the panchas - five witnesses during raids - brought by NCB were fake and had criminal backgrounds. Further, the witnesses were the same in several cases, in violation of the NCB rules.
On May 27, 2022, Aryan was discharged from the case after the NCB submitted that there was no adequate evidence against him. A year later, the CBI stepped in and claimed that Wankhede and others had demanded Rs 25 crore from SRK to get his son cleared of drug possession charges and had accepted the first instalment.
Relief for Param Bir
Retired IPS officer chief Param Bir Singh breathed a sigh of relief when the Shinde-Fadnavis government unexpectedly granted him a clean chit and revoked his suspension citing a Central Administrative Tribunal order.
In March 2021, then state home minister Anil Deshmu-kh had transferred Singh from his post as Mumbai police chief to the home guards wing for lapses in the probe into recovery of explosives from a vehicle outside the Ambani residence. Singh, in turn, wrote to then CM Uddhav Thackeray accusing Deshmukh of collecting bribes. Singh was suspended in December 2021. He retired in June 2022.
But as the state home department - then led by NCP leader Dilip Walse Patil and now by deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis - did not follow the procedure under the All India Service (discipline and conduct) rules pertaining to suspended officers, the government had to reinstate him. The order said the period of suspension should be treated as he was on duty.
Singh also managed to ruin the political career of Deshmukh, who was forced to resi-gn as home minister. Later, the ED and CBI registered two separate criminal cases against Deshmukh, who spent more than a year in judicial custody.