A narcotics agency officer in Delhi, who has taken over six cases handled by Mumbai anti-drugs officer Sameer Wankhede, has earlier worked as Deputy Inspector General with the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Sanjay Kumar Singh, a 1996-batch Odisha cadre Indian Police Service officer, will take over the six cases including the Mumbai drugs-on-cruise case. He is currently Deputy Director General (Operations) of the Narcotics Control Bureau or NCB.
Mr Singh also headed the anti-drugs task force in the twin city commissionerate in Odisha. When he was with the CBI, he supervised the team that investigated the 2010 Commonwealth Games scam.
The six drug cases that have been transferred to a team headed by Mr Singh include the Aryan Khan case and five other sensitive ones said to be linked with a number of Bollywood personalities.
Mr Wankhede has been in the centre of a big controversy over the arrest of actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan from a cruise off the Mumbai coast. The NCB zonal director was accused by leaders of the ruling Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party of framing false cases to tarnish the image of Bollywood and Maharashtra.
Mr Wankhede on Friday clarified he has not been removed from the investigation into these cases. "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's a coordination between NCB teams of Delhi and Mumbai," Mr Wankhede told news agency ANI.
The NCB in statement signed by Mr Singh also said no officer has been removed from their present roles. "They will continue to assist the operations branch investigation as required until any specific orders are issued to the contrary. It is reiterated that the NCB functions across India as a single integrated agency," the NCB said in the statement tweeted by ANI.
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