A special investigation team (SIT), comprising officers from the Operations Branch of the Narcotic Control Bureau headquarters in Delhi, will take over the drugs in cruise case and five other sensitive cases from the Mumbai zonal unit of the NCB.
"IT comprising officers from Ops Branch of NCB HQ constituted by Director General, NCB to take over a total of six cases from NCB Mumbai Zonal Unit which have national and international ramifications in order to conduct deeper investigation to find out forward and backward linkages," a release from the NCB headquarters stated.
According to media reports, the SIT team will be led by Sanjay Kumar Singh, a 1996-batch Odisha cadre IPS officer, who is currently the deputy director general (Operations) of NCB.
Meanwhile, Sameer Wankhede, who is at the centre of a political controversy following allegations of extortion in the cruise drugs case, involving the son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, Aryan Khan, has allegedly been taken off the case, a report that he refuted. "I have not been removed from investigation. It was my writ petition in court that the matter be probed by a central agency. So the Aryan (Khan) case and Sameer Khan case are being probed by the Delhi NCB's special investigation team. It is a coordination between NCB teams of Delhi and Mumbai," news agency ANI quoted him as saying.
The statement from NCB headquarters corroborates this claim as it says, “No officer or officers have been removed from their present roles.” The officers will continue to assist the Operations Branch investigations, the anti-drug agency said in the statement.
"It is reiterated that NCB functions across India as a single integrated agency," the statement read.
