Mounting pressure on the Centre and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Maharashtra’s minority affairs minister and NCP chief spokesperson Nawab Malik on Tuesday made public an explosive anonymous letter addressed to him which claims that a large number of people are being framed by the federal anti-drugs agency.
"The letter sent to me by an unnamed NCB official claims that a number of people have been framed in false cases. The punchnamas were drafted at the NCB office. We demand an investigation into this," said Malik, displaying the letter which has been purportedly written by a NCB official.
In the letter, the official, who has been working for the last two years in the Mumbai office, has described zonal director Sameer Wankhede as an “attention seeker”.
Demanding a probe, Malik has forwarded the letter to NCB director-general SN Pradhan and Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.
The development comes a day after Malik claimed that Wankhede is a Muslim by birth, however, he has forged documents to show himself as a Scheduled Caste, take benefit of reservation and enter the Indian Revenue Service in 2008.
Wankhede also faces allegations of corruption and bribery vis-a-vis the Cordelia cruise ship rave party bust case.
The NCB headquarters have already initiated a probe and he has been summoned to New Delhi even as a three-member team is probing the issue in Mumbai.
"I am fighting against a person who has extorted money from people… my estimate is over Rs 1,000 crore. The NCB has already started a probe and they must look into the points raised in the 4-page letter, which I have received” Malik said.
Speaking about the letter, Malik, however, made it clear that he was not against the government agency. "My war is not against the NCB. I am fighting injustice. I am only exposing one official who got the job by fraud. Wankhede used a fake birth certificate to get the NCB job,” he said.
Malik, a close aide of NCP founder-president Sharad Pawar, also accused him of illegally tapping phones of people in Mumbai and Thane.
“Wankhede sought the CDR (call detail record) of my daughter Nilofer. However, Mumbai Police refused to provide them. I have information that Sameer Wankhede, through two private individuals, is intercepting calls. My phones were also tapped. Wankhede is tapping the phones of top personalities, including Bollywood celebrities,” said Malik, whose son-in-law Sameer Khan was arrested by NCB in an earlier case and is currently on bail.
Meanwhile, when asked about the letter, NCB’s deputy director-general Mutha Ashok Jain, who heads the South West Region of the agency, said: "I have seen the letter. We will take necessary action.”
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