Sameer Wankhede on handling Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan's drug case: Have no regrets
Shah Rukh Khan and Sameer Wankhede
Sameer Wankhede, an Indian Revenue Service officer, is currently being investigated by his agency for several alleged financial and procedural irregularities. Sameer was in the news last when he led the team that put Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s eldest son Aryan in jail for alleged possession of drugs while partying on a yacht. Aryan spent nearly a month in jail before being released on bail.
In an interview with The Lallantop youtube channel, Sameer Wankhede was asked if he had any regrets about his conduct with Shah Rukh Khan and his son. He replied by calling it the “smallest case of his life”, claiming he was not familiar with Shah Rukh Khan’s popularity. He also mentioned that he had “no regrets” in life and if given a chance to revisit those times, he “would do it again”.
Sameer Wankhede addresses alleged chats between him and SRK
At the time when Aryan was in jail, Shah Rukh Khan and Sameer Wankhede reportedly spoke in texts. Those texts later leaked on social media. In them, Shah Rukh Khan pleaded with Sameer to have mercy on his son and not put him in jail. In one of the threads, Shah Rukh Khan wrote, “I beg you as a father...Please don’t let him be in that jail. He will break as a human being.”
When asked about these chats, he 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.”
Why Sameer Wankhede would "do it again"
Sameer Wankhede is currently on trial for allegedly trying to extortmoney from Shah Rukh and for laundering money.
But would he do it again? “Yes,” said Sameer.
When the interviewer asked if that meant it was a warning to SRK, Sameer replied, “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?”
Sameer said, “I would prefer if you ask me about ‘real heroes’ such as Modi ji, or Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.”
Sameer Wankhede’s tenure with the Narcotics Control Bureau as the Zonal Director ended shortly after he was removed from the Aryan Khan case. Aryan Khan got a clean chit in 2022.
