The caste verification committee has cleared former NCB official Sameer Wankhede in the caste certificate matter, bringing an end to a year-long controversy. In 2021, Nawab Malik – the former cabinet minister in the then Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra – alleged that Sameer Wankhede is not a Muslim by birth because his father Dnyaneshwar Wankhede gave up Hinduism and became a Muslim to get married for the second time. Malik accused Wankhede of furnishing fake documents to verify his caste and denying the opportunity of a government job to one candidate from a scheduled caste. Now, the caste verification committee has proven Nawab Malik’s claims to be false.
Anita Meshram (Wankhede) presided over the caste scrutiny committee, which included Salima Tadvi as a member and Sunita Mate as a member secretary. The committee found that the accusation by former Maharastra cabinet minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik, as well as other complainants such as Manoj Sansare, Ashok Kamble, and Sanjay Kamble, who had objected to Sameer Wankhede’s caste certificate, could not be substantiated.
Sameer Wankhede’s caste certificate was likewise confirmed by the committee. The committee had taken down arguments from both sides in a 91-page verdict before concluding that Wankhede was not a Muslim by birth. Additionally, the committee found that Sameer Wankhede and his father Dyaneshwar Wankhede had not converted to Islam from Hinduism. According to the ruling, Sameer Wankhede and his father are members of the Mahar-37 Scheduled Caste, which is recognized in Hinduism.
Sameer Wankhede posted on Twitter, “Satyameva Jayate” which means ‘Truth Always Triumphs’. He said while talking to the media, “All my life I have worked for the service of the people, but what hurt me was the fact that my family and dead mother were also not spared. My family was hurt and my morale was also broken. Though we are trained to face such cases in our service, the manner in which we were targeted was shocking. I will not comment on the politics of all this.”
He further said, “The Bombay High Court had also used derogatory language for me, and my family has already approached the High Court in this regard. I will continue to do my job fearlessly.” The whole matter came to light last year when Wankhede was the head of the Narcotic Control Bureau in Mumbai. Wankhede alleged that Malik had raised the issue of his caste certificate as a cabinet minister at that time only because his team had arrested Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan in a drug case.
After Sameer Khan was released, Malik started making these allegations. Sameer Wankhede was also an investigating officer in the Cruise Drug Case of 2021 in which Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan was also named. NCP leader Nawab Malik was the first to allege that the NCB raid was fake and an attempt to extort money from the film superstar.
