On October 3, Sameer Wankhede arrested Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan and some others from a cruise party where apparently Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had conducted a raid and seized banned substances.
It seems that this is not the first time that Sameer Wankhede, the Zonal Director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Mumbai and Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan have come face to face with each other.
The arrest of son Aryan isn’t Shah Rukh Khan’s first brush with Sameer Wankhede. More than a decade ago, Wankhede stopped Shah Rukh at Mumbai airport, leading to the actor being made to pay customs duty.
In July 2011, Shah Rukh had returned from a trip to Holland and London with his family. As he landed in Mumbai, Wankhede stopped and questioned him for allegedly not declaring foreign goods that attracted duty.
Sameer Wankhede was at that time Assistant Commissioner of Customs and was stationed at the Mumbai airport. Shah Rukh Khan and his family were apparently carrying at least 20 bags with them.
The Bollywood megastar was questioned for several hours at the airport and his luggage was checked by Sameer Wankhede’s team for possible evasion of duty. He had to finally pay Rs 1.5 lakh in customs duty.
Celebrities detained by Sameer Wankhede
As Assistant Commissioner of Customs, Wankhede had detained several other celebrities, including actors Anushka Sharma, Minissha Lamba and singer Mika Singh for alleged misdeclaration of goods.
This included mostly jewellery and foreign currency. Actress Anushka Sharma was stopped in July 2011 for allegedly carrying undeclared diamond jewellery worth Rs 40 lakh while returning back from Toronto.
Singer Mika Singh was detained at the airport by Sameer Wankhede in 2013 for allegedly carrying foreign currency beyond the limit prescribed under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
