Excise inspector gets HC notice on Wankhede's plea

The Bombay High Court on Monday issued a fresh notice to an excise inspector, while hearing a petition by IRS officer and former NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede, who has sought to quash an FIR filed against him on a complaint by the excise department.

- Urvi Mahajani

A division bench of Justices Ajey Gadkari and RR Bhonsale directed Wankhede to submit a copy of the nowcancelled liquor licence, originally issued in his mother's name. As per the excise department, later his name was also included in the license despite him being a minor.

Senior advocates Aabad Ponda and Rizwan Merchant, representing Wankhede, submitted that the complaint was motivated and lacked legal basis. The sections invoked in the FIR do not apply to the case and the officer was granted interim protection from coercive action in 2022, Ponda asserted.