My name is Dnyandev not Dawood, says Sameer Wankhede's father, shows documents

Mumbai: Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) official Sameer Wankhede's father has slammed Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik, who suggested that the agency's zonal director forged personal documents, including his birth certificate. Malik also claimed on Monday that Sameer Wankhede is a Muslim by birth and that his real name is "Sameer Dawood Wankhede" as he accused the NCB official of forgery.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Malik has been attacking Sameer Wankhede who allegedly seized drugs onboard a cruise ship on its way to Goa on October 2 during a raid and arrested Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan and others the next day.

Wankhede's father said that Malik was playing very low-level politics. “It is an absolute lie that my name is Dawood Wankhede. I think there is some malafide intention of Malik behind releasing that birth certificate of Sameer Wankhede and defaming us. My name is Dnyandev Wankhede since my birth and it is still the same,” he said while speaking to a regional news channel, according to news agency PTI.

“I completed my graduation and post-graduation and even served in a state government department. How is it possible that none of them knew my name was not Dnyandev and it was Dawood? How come Malik alone gets the suspicious document?" he asked.

'Have proof'

Wankhede senior said that his wife, who died six years ago, once made an affidavit in which mentions that his name is Dnyandev Wankhede. "I even have a valid caste certificate with me. And not just me, even my relatives have similar documents to establish it," he added.

Dnyandev Wankhede's comments came after Sameer Wankhede denied Malik's allegations of forging documents. He said that his father Dnyandev Kachruji Wankhede retired as senior police inspector with the state's excise department in 2007. His father is a Hindu and his late mother Zaheeda was a Muslim, the NCB official said.

Sameer Wankhede also mentioned that he married Dr Shabana Qureshi in 2006 under the Special Marriage Act and divorced mutually in 2016. He married Kranti Redkar in 2017.

“When my son and his first wife had a son, even on the latter's birth certificate my son's full name is mentioned in which my name is stated as Dnyandev Wankhede. Those people (Malik) should understand it. God knows from where Malik drew this connection,” he said.

“It looks like Nawab Malik was hurt after his son-in-law (Sameer Khan) was put behind bars by the NCB earlier. He never uttered a word against the NCB when his son-in-law was in jail. Malik started speaking out only after he was released,” the Wankhede senior said.

‘Will come out of this’

When asked about the allegations of pay-off raised by Prabhakar Sail, an NCB independent witness, he said if Sameer Wankhede wanted a bribe from Shah Rukh Khan, he would have asked the actor to deliver it at home. "He would not have arrested his (Shah Rukh Khan's) son and then demanded it.”

Prabhakar Sail seemed to have been beaten up and then forced to give the statement. “While talking Sail is coughing, drinking water. All these are signs of getting beaten up severely. Why was he quiet for so many days if he was made to sign some blank papers (after the alleged cruise ship raid by NCB officials)?” he asked.

Sail, in a statement to the media on Sunday, claimed that ₹25 crore was demanded by an official of the NCB and other people, including absconding witness KP Gosavi, to let off Aryan Khan in the drugs raid case. Sail said he overheard Gosavi telling one Sam D'Souza over the phone about a demand of ₹25 crore and "to settle at ₹18 crore as they have to give ₹8 crore to Sameer Wankhede".

Sameer Wankhede has denied the allegations and said they are a bid to scuttle the probe in the drugs raid case. The NCB is probing the extortion charge against Sameer Wankhede. 

Dnyandev Wankhede compared his son to Abhimanyu, a character in the epic Mahabharata who is surrounded by enemies, and said that he will come out of this chakravyuh or a multi-tiered military formation.