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Sameer Wankhede’s promotion path is paved, no one can be deprived of promotion based on mere allegations, High Court and CAT decision upheld

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Mumbai: Supreme Court refuses to interfere with Sameer Wankhede’s promotion A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Arade dismissed the appeal filed by the Central Government challenging the said order of the Delhi High Court pronounced on August 28 last year. The Supreme Court refused to interfere with Sameer Wankhede’s promotion. Sameer Wankhede, an IRS officer of the 2008 batch, gained national attention during the 2021 Cordelia Cruz case. New

The Mumbai Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with the Delhi High Court’s order upholding the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT)’s decision to grant relief to Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Sameer Wankhede by directing the Centre to proceed with his promotion as Joint Commissioner of Customs and Indirect Taxes. A bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Alok Arade dismissed the appeal filed by the Central government challenging the said Delhi High Court order passed on August 28 last year. We are not inclined to interfere with the illegal decision and order in exercise of our jurisdiction under Article 136 of the Constitution of India. The special leave applications are accordingly dismissed, however, the dismissal of the matter will not have any effect on any other proceedings. Pending application (pending), if no one appears in court, the High Court’s August 2025 order had upheld the CAT’s December 2024 decision, in which the government was directed to promote Wankhede to the post of Additional Commissioner of Customs and Indirect Taxes, with effect from January 1, 2021. On the recommendation of the UPSC, the tribunal had also directed that his name be appropriately placed in the seniority list of Joint Commissioners. The Centre opposed Wankhede’s promotion on the ground that several proceedings were pending against the IRS officer. These include an FIR registered by the CBI in May 2023, an ECIR registered by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, and a draft charge sheet proposing a hefty fine. The complaints stem from allegations of lapses and corruption linked to the search and seizure operation of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the Cordelia Cruise case, in which Wankhede was a part. Several people, including Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, were arrested in the NCB search operation on charges of drug use. It was alleged that the accused officers misused their official positions and conspired with private individuals. According to the allegations, they conspired to extort Rs 25 crore from the family of an accused in the case, later settled for Rs 18 crore, of which Rs 50 lakh was allegedly received as bribe.

Due to the above allegations against Wankhede, the report recommending his promotion was kept under sealed cover, and the promotion of the officers was stopped. However, the Delhi High Court, agreeing with the CAT, had approved the promotion of the officers while observing that, till date (August 2025), there was no departmental action pending against Wankhede, no charge sheet had been filed by the CBI or the ED, and neither had he been suspended or formally charged. The High Court had also observed that mere pendency of preliminary investigation cannot be a ground for denial of promotion. The High Court judges had said that if the allegations were really serious, the authorities had the power to suspend the officer, which they did not exercise in this case. The Supreme Court has now upheld the Delhi High Court’s decision. Sameer Wankhede, a 2008 batch IRS officer, gained national attention during his tenure as the zonal director of NCB Mumbai, especially for high-profile drug investigations like the 2021 Cordelia Cruz case. However, his tenure also witnessed significant scrutiny, political controversies and numerous complaints leading to departmental and criminal inquiries.

Maharashtra

Body of minor girl recovered from Kandivali Santa nagar forest in Mumbai; police investigation concludes that lover killed lover

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Mumbai: After the mutilated body of a minor girl aged 16 to 17 was found in the Kandivali Samta Nagar area, the police have claimed to have arrested her lover. The body was found in the forest on July 10. The police identified the body and after technical investigation and panchnama, the police traced the accused. An FSL was conducted on the body of the deceased. After the identification of the victim, when her heirs and relatives were questioned, it was found that she was having an affair with Suraj Maruti Waghmare, 21. After that, the police searched for the suspected accused and solved the mystery. This operation was carried out on the instructions of Mumbai Gajanan Raj Mane.

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Maharashtra

The Election Commission assured necessary steps for the important demands including two-month extension in SIR, protection of existing voters, complete facilitation to BLOs and grievance redressal.

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Mumbai, July 10: A high-level delegation of the Federation of Maharashtra Muslims (FMM) today met the Chief Electoral Officer, Maharashtra and submitted a detailed memorandum on the issues faced by the public during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state and to make the electoral process more transparent, fair and people-friendly.

The delegation said that since the inception of SIR, the Federation has set up awareness campaigns and facilitation centres across the state, where volunteers are guiding citizens in the enumeration process and promoting cooperation with Booth Level Officers (BLOs). The memorandum was prepared based on public complaints and suggestions received from these centres and various districts.

The memorandum firstly termed the duration of the current registration phase as inadequate and demanded an extension of at least two months in view of the displacement due to heavy rains, agricultural sowing, reconstruction and demolition operations and other practical difficulties, as no immediate elections are expected in the state at present.

The delegation demanded that in order to reduce the burden of additional responsibilities on the booth level officers, they be temporarily exempted from non-electoral official duties, assistant BLOs be appointed wherever necessary, refresher training be given to all BLOs, their contact numbers, offices and latest information on their scope of work be made available to the public, and clear instructions be given to them to provide practical cooperation in resolving the anamnesis and other issues of the citizens.

The memorandum also emphasized that a large number of citizens are still unaware of the SIR procedure, deadlines and required documents, especially senior citizens, women, migrant workers, economically weaker sections and rural population. Therefore, a widespread multilingual awareness campaign through print, electronic and social media, strengthening of facilitation centres and establishment of mobile verification units were requested.

The delegation, while pointing out the confusion in the documentation and mapping process, demanded that comprehensive public guidelines be issued on different types of analyses and the documents required for them, that documentary requirements be eased where old records are not available, that legal changes in EPIC number and name be given due weight in mapping, that the list of acceptable documents be expanded and that uniform written instructions regarding duplicate entries be issued to all field officers.

The Federation also expressed concern that some citizens who had voted in the 2024 elections were unable to find their names or EPIC records in the current process. The delegation demanded that such voters should not be unnecessarily forced to re-enrol and that if an eligible voter’s name has been deleted by mistake, his/her name should be restored through a simple and prompt rectification process after proper verification.

The memorandum also called for issuing notices to strengthen transparency and accountability, publishing detailed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on documentation requirements and principles for deletion of names, establishing an effective, transparent and time-bound grievance redressal system, implementing a robust audit and supervisory system to monitor the data entry and verification process, and independent monitoring of the entire SIR process.

The delegation stressed that the main objective of SIR should be to include every eligible voter in the electoral process and not to deprive any citizen of his/her constitutional right to vote due to administrative, technical or procedural shortcomings. Therefore, all election officers should be directed to adopt a citizen-friendly approach.

On this occasion, along with Bhiwandi MLA Raees Sheikh, the delegation included Maulana Hafiz Iqbal Chunawala (Member of Shura, Darul Uloom Deoband Waqf), Maulana Zaheer Abbas Rizvi (Vice President, Shia Personal Law Board), Farid Sheikh (President, Aman Committee Mumbai), Shakir Sheikh and Abdul Mujeeb Sheikh.

According to the delegation, the Chief Electoral Officer, Maharashtra listened to all the points presented in the memorandum very seriously, termed these suggestions as constructive and assured that necessary steps would be taken after due consideration of all these demands keeping in mind the public interest and transparency of the electoral process.

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Maharashtra

Mumbai ATS appeals to parents and youth: Do not interact with unknown Pakistani individuals or suspicious contacts on social media.

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Mumbai: Pakistani gangster and ISI agent Shahzad Bhatti has started instigating youth in India by spreading hateful agenda and religious hatred to create unrest and sabotage in the country, after which the ATS has interrogated such youths whom this gang had targeted and tried to prepare the youth for sabotage in the country.


Maharashtra ATS had conducted raids since 7 am and 58 teams have interrogated about 102 youths. The gangster used to lure the youth through false propaganda online and on social media and also gave orders to carry out the conspiracy of unrest in the country. The method of luring the youth is such that first on social media, Shahzad Bhatti and his associates Abid Jat alias Abid Chhal, Hameed Memon, Rana Haneen, Ashraf Bashir Alam targeted such youth in India, saying that they are unemployed and can easily fall prey to false propaganda. Along with this, they used to mislead the youth by sharing religious and political propaganda and misleading information on social media and after that they used to offer money to the youth by making attractive offers. After that, they would select such youth, they would fall under the trap of misleading propaganda and then form a group and he had prepared such a group of such youth but the ATS exposed him and foiled his conspiracy.

ATS appeals to parents of youth Maharashtra ATS has appealed to such parents to keep an eye on their youth and if there is any change in their use of social media, then keep an eye on it and if any suspicious activity is noticed, then inform the police and ATS. ATS has made an important appeal to the youth regarding social media, saying that they should not contact any unknown person whom they are not familiar with, along with not believing misleading propaganda and false information on social media, along with controversial and objectionable content and not keep in touch with suspicious and unknown persons on social media, Facebook and other sources. Often, youth are offered many jobs on social media and are lured with money without doing any work. Similarly, the Shahzad Bhatti gang also targets youth. It first selects youth and then involves them in illegal activities, drug smuggling, and buying and selling weapons, involves them in anti-national activities, and involves them in sleeper cells to prepare its agents. Therefore, the youth have been appealed not to fall prey to financial greed because if out of greed they do any small work that falls under the category of involvement in terrorism, their future will be dark. Do not fall prey to false propaganda on social media. It is the responsibility of ATS to ensure the establishment of patriotism and communal harmony in the country. Therefore, ATS takes action against such elements and has also intensified Operation Shahzad Bhatti.

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