Anti-Drug Officer Must Act Against Minister Targeting Him, Says BJP Leader

NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede should take "necessary action" so that Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik, who has been targeting the officer, realises "consequences", state BJP chief Chandrakant Patil said today.

Mr Malik, the state minority affairs minister, has been targeting Mr Wankhede who recently led the Narcotics Control Bureau's (NCB) drug bust on a cruise ship in which actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan was arrested.

Asked by reporters about Mr Malik's claim that Mr Wankhede will lose his job within a year, Mr Patil said, "His statement against an officer from the central agency will have consequences, and Wankhede should take necessary action to show what these consequences can be."

Asked about Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's allegation that the aim of the NCB's recent actions was to defame Bollywood and take the film industry out of Mumbai and Maharashtra, he said the question should be asked to the central agency and not to him.

On Ajit Pawar's statement that as many as 65 cooperative sugar mills were sold off in the state but only the sale of Jarandeshwar mill was being questioned, Mr Patil said, "Jarandeshwar mill's case is different. It is related to the Enforcement Directorate which deals with money laundering cases. If the remaining 64 sugar mills have anything to do with money laundering, then conduct an ED inquiry (against them too)."

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