HC asks CBI not to take 'coercive action' against Sameer Wankhede in bribery case till Monday
Mumbai, May 19: The Bombay High Court on Friday directed the CBI not to take any "coercive action" such as arrest till May 22 against former NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede, accused of demanding Rs 25 crore bribe from superstar Shah Rukh Khan for not implicating his son Aryan Khan in the Cordelia cruise 'drug bust' case.
Wankhede, an Indian Revenue Service official who was posted with the Narcotics Control Bureau here in 2021, has moved the court with a petition seeking to quash the First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation against him for alleged extortion and bribery.
A vacation bench of the court passed the order after recording Wankhede's undertaking that he will remain present at the CBI's office in Bandra Kurla Complex here at 11 am on Saturday.
The CBI shall not take any "coercive action" against Wankhede till May 22, the HC said.
The central agency registered the FIR against Wankhede and four others recently for alleged criminal conspiracy and threat of extortion besides offences related to bribery under the Prevention of Corruption Act on the NCB's complaint.
Aryan Khan was arrested by the NCB on October 3, 2021, following alleged drug seizure on board the Cordelia cruise ship here.
He was granted bail by the high court after three weeks as the anti-drugs agency failed to substantiate its charges against him.
The CBI alleged that the NCB Mumbai Zone had received information in October 2021 regarding the consumption and possession of narcotic substances by various individuals on the cruise ship, and some NCB officers conspired to get bribes from the accused in return for letting them off.
The CBI had summoned Wankhede for questioning in Mumbai on Thursday, but he did not appear.
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19-yr-old woman found hanging from tree in UP village; juvenile held
Lucknow/Pratapgarh (UP) (PTI): Police have apprehended a 16-year-old boy for his alleged involvement in the rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman whose body was found hanging from a tree in a village here, officials said on Monday.
Additional Superintendent of Police (West), Brijnandan Rai, said that the body of a 19-year-old woman was found hanging from a tree in an orchard in the Manikpur police station area on Sunday morning. A post-mortem examination subsequently confirmed that she had been raped.
Police registered a case against unidentified persons under sections 103(1) (punishment for murder) and 70(1) (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and initiated an investigation.
During the course of the investigation, the police found that the deceased was in contact with a juvenile who was also her relative.
Acting on this information, during a joint checking operation, sub-inspector Amit Kumar Singh of Manikpur police station and SOG In-charge Amit Kumar Chaurasia, along with their team, apprehended the 16-year-old near the Lehdari Ganga River bridge.
The search for other accused persons is ongoing, police said.
According to the police, the woman had gone to sleep after dinner on Saturday night but was found hanging in an orchard nearly 400 metres away from her home the following morning.
Additional Superintendent of Police (West), Brijnandan Rai, had earlier said that the circumstances suggest foul play.
"The victim's slippers and undergarments were recovered 50 metres away from the spot where the body was found. There are visible injury marks on her body," Rai said.
While locals have alleged that the woman was murdered after being raped, the ASP said that it is "prima facie a case of murder."
"Based on the complaint filed by the victim's brother, a case of murder has been registered against unidentified persons," the officer added.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in a post on X in Hindi on Monday, said, "The news of the heinous murder of a Dalit daughter in Pratapgarh is deeply tragic and condemnable."
"The question remains: why does the spate of murders of 'PDA daughters' continue unabated in Uttar Pradesh? Are the BJP government's claims regarding women's safety merely hollow rhetoric, or is there, in fact, discrimination even in the provision of security for women?" he said.
"Whenever the 'wandering Honourable (ghumantu maananiye)' finds a moment of respite from election campaigning, he should cast a glance at the plight of the daughters of his own Uttar Pradesh. In any case, apart from injustice and oppression, no sister, daughter, or mother of this state holds any hope from you," Yadav added.
