After snooping claims, Mumbai cops step up security of NCB officer Wankhede

After allegations of snooping, the Mumbai police on Thursday increased the security cover of NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede, who is currently supervising investigation into the high-profile drugs-on-cruise case, an official said.

Wankhede, who earlier this week claimed that two policemen were monitoring his movements, confirmed the development.

According to the official, the police have provided a gunman and three more personnel to guard the senior IRS officer.

The vehicle, which he was using earlier, has been replaced with an SUV as part of his new security detail, he said.

The number of police personnel deployed outside the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) office at Ballard Estate in South Mumbai has also been increased, the official said.

Wankhede is currently supervising probe into the case of alleged seizure of banned drugs from a cruise ship in which Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, is among those arrested.

The senior bureaucrat had lodged a complaint alleging his movements were being tracked by some unidentified persons and two policemen from the Oshiwara Police Station in suburban Mumbai.

The NCB officer also had met Maharashtra DGP Sanjay Pandey and told him he was being stalked.

After his snooping allegations, Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil had said the state government had not ordered police or any other agency to monitor the movements of Wankhede.

Besides the cruise drug bust, Wankhede had been involved in investigations of a string of high-profile narcotics cases, including the one related to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput last year.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)