Indian Revenue Service officer Sameer Wankhede, who is under the scanner for several alleged financial and procedural irregularities, addressed the interactions that he is said to have had with actor Shah Rukh Khan. Wankhede led the team that arrested Shah Rukh’s son, Aryan Khan, on drug-related charges in 2021. Aryan spent nearly a month in jail before being released on bail.
In a new interview with The Lallantop, Wankhede described this as ‘the smallest case of (his) life’, and claimed to not be familiar with Shah Rukh’s popularity. He also said that he has absolutely ‘no regrets’ about anything in his life, and given the chance to return to his post – he is currently on trial for allegedly extorting money from Shah Rukh, and for laundering money – he ‘would do it all again’. The interviewer asked, “Is this a warning to Shah Rukh Khan?” Wankhede replied in Hindi, “No, I’m a small man. Who am I to warn anybody? The person that you are referring to, I don’t even watch very many movies, I don’t know the names…”
The interviewer countered, “Are you telling me that you are not aware of the stardom of Shah Rukh Khan?” Wankhede replied, “I would prefer if you ask me about ‘real heroes’ such as Modi ji, or Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.”
During the proceedings against Wankhede, alleged chats between him and Shah Rukh were leaked publicly. In one of these messages, Shah Rukh appeared to be imploring Wankhede to show mercy on Aryan. “I beg you as a father,” Shah Rukh allegedly wrote, “Please don’t let him be in that jail. He will break as a human being.” Asked about these alleged chats, Wankhede said, “I don’t want to talk about this man, but whenever you take action (in cases like this), and parents reach out to you, you feel bad about it. Especially when the person is a consumer, or if they have a drug habit. First and foremost, you feel bad, and you want them to go to rehab. Unless, of course, we’re talking about hardened gangsters.”
He continued, “We once nabbed a lady peddler who had little children. She didn’t have money for milk also. You definitely feel bad. But at the end of the day, it’s your duty to recover drugs.” Wankhede said that it was very common, during his tenure as the Zonal Director for the Narcotics Control Bureau, for him to be ‘approached by hundreds of mothers’, and he considered it his duty to counsel them. Asked why he didn’t disclose his personal interactions with Shah Rukh to his NCB higher-ups, he refused to get into details, and said that he has already given his response to the High Court.
Wankhede also found time for some humour, when a journalist named Aryan asked him a question. “Which Aryan?” he joked. “You haven’t lost your sense of humour,” the interviewer remarked, and Wankhede said, “I don’t have any regrets in life, firstly, and if given the chance, I’d do it all again.” Wankhede’s tenure with the NCB ended shortly after he was removed from the Aryan Khan case. Aryan himself was given a clean chit in 2022.
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