JOIN USCaste committee certifies Sameer Wankhede belongs to a Scheduled Caste
The Maharashtra government’s District Caste Certificate Verification Committee (DCCVC) has given clean chit to high-profile IRS officer Sameer Wankhede, declaring that he belongs to the Mahar community, which comes under Scheduled Caste.
Wankhede, an officer of 2008-batch of Indian Revenue Service (IRS), who was the zonal director with Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Mumbai, and is now attached to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI).
“Non-applicant Sameer Dnyandev Wankhede is not a Muslim by birth. It is not proved that the non-applicant and his father Dnyandev Wankhede renounced Hinduism and duly converted to Islam. It is proved that the non-applicant and his father-in-law belong to SC, Mahar-37,” according to the order signed by DCCVC-Mumbai president Anita Meshram Wankhede, Member secretary Sunita Mate and member Salima Tadvi.
"…Yes…I just want to say Satyameva Jayate. My family and I have gone through a lot of trauma," Wankhede said in his brief comments.
Former Maharashtra minister and NCP’s then-chief spokesperson Nawab Malik had accused Wankhede of being a Muslim by birth and forging certificates to take caste benefits and enter the central service through UPSC. Besides, he had also levelled allegations of corruption and misuse of office.
Wankhede had tenures with Customs, NCB and DRI in the past and was brought to the federal anti-drugs agency in September 2020 as part of the larger investigations following the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput. His tenure with NCB till December 31, 2021, ran into controversy particularly after the Cordelia cruise ship raid in October, in which Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan was among the 20 arrested persons. Khan was later granted bail by the Bombay High Court and he was not charged by the NCB.