Sources said that in August, the Vigilance Committee had submitted a 3,000-page chargesheet against seven-eight officials for irregularities not only in the Aryan case, but also in two-three other cases. The officers include officers from the NCB, some who were deputed to it, and some who are no longer with the bureau.
During the Aryan case, the Mumbai NCB was headed by an IRS officer, Sameer Wankhede, who was deputed to the agency. He was later sent back to his home cadre.
This is yet another embarrassment for NCB as its Special Investigation Team in May this year had given clean chit to Aryan Khan and five others, stating that there were irregularities and lack of evidence in the investigation. Aryan spent nearly a month behind bars before he was granted bail in the high-profile case. A source said the vigilance probe found evidence of “selective treatment” in the case, indicating that he may have been targeted.
The source refused to divulge whether any aspect of extortion has been found in the investigation. There were reports in May that the Vigilance Committee had not found evidence of extortion. Soon after Aryan Khan’s arrest in October 2021, Prabhakar Cell, a witness in the case, alleging extortion of Rs 25 crore in the case, pointing to Wankhede and a panch witness Kiran Gosavi.
“The report was submitted to the Competent Authority for taking further action. The report has been submitted in accordance with the proceedings of the Department and in accordance with the sections of the Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964. The Competent Authority shall normally take a call there Irregularities are subject to two types of action- one, those facing serious charges can be removed from service and the other is departmental action.
At the time of the clean chit given to Aryan Khan by the NCB SIT, the Center had directed a departmental inquiry against Wankhede for “shoddy” probe.
Sources said the vigilance committee recorded the statements of at least 65 witnesses who had testified before it and merged it with their earlier statements. The committee studied the case papers, statements of witnesses and evaluated the evidence in the cases to point out several irregularities.
Aryan Khan was arrested by the NCB on 3 October 2021 along with 15 others in the Cordelia cruise ship case. Aryan Khan and five others were later acquitted.