MUMBAI: Former zonal director of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Sameer Wankhede on Sunday pressed charges against former Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik for "atrocities against a Dalit individual."
Goregaon Police has registered an FIR under the IPC and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The Assistant Commissioner of Police, Goregaon division, would be investigating the case.
Just a day earlier on Saturday, Wankhede, who was being probed for allegedly submitting a fake caste certificate for getting a government job, was given a clean chit by the caste scrutiny committee. The order issued by the Social Justice Department of Maharashtra government said that Wankhede was not Muslim by birth and it has been proven that he belongs to Mahar caste, which is a Scheduled Caste.
The issue of Wankhede's caste was raised by Malik. "The police complaint has been lodged over the mental torture and harassment that my family and I were put through and the atrocities against us," Wankhede told TOI.
In the FIR, Wankhede states that in October 2021, he had arrested Malik's son-in-law Sameer Khan for possession of drugs, which prompted the former Minister's actions. The FIR also says that statements about Wankhede's caste were repeatedly made during speeches and press conferences by the former Minister. He said that his family was driven to depression and despair due to constant mudslinging in the media
