School Leaving Certificate shows Wankhede as Muslim

Mumbai: In the ongoing saga between political super-snoop versus narcotics super-sleuth, NCP Minister Nawab Malik on Thursday said that NCB officer Sameer Wankhede's School Leaving Certificates (SLC) shows him to be a 'Muslim', and he had allegedly threatened his ex-wife's family of dire consequences if they spoke out.

Continuing the crusade questioning how the NCB officer had allegedly produced a fake caste certificate to land a plum central job in reserved category, the Nationalist Congress Party National Spokesperson released the purported School Leaving Certificates of Wankhede when he left one school to join another due to 'change of residence' status, some 25 years ago.

The first is from St. Paul High School Dadar, which he left on June 27, 1986 as a Class 2 student a year after admission (June 13, 1985), to join the St. Joseph School, Wadala, owing to shifting to a new address, both in south-central Mumbai.

The two handwritten certificates -- as was the norm in those days -- show identical details, including the pupil's name as 'Sameer Dawood Wankhede', DoB '14-12-1979' in words too and religion as 'Muslim'.

"I have already submitted these and other details to the Hon' Bombay High Court, which will pass its interim orders later today. Wankhede has been indulging in frauds and is an expert in creating 'fake certificates'," Malik said.

The Wankhede family countered Malik by producing purported SLCs and a 2021 computer-generated birth certificate of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation which shows the name as Sameer, mother's name as Zahedbano and father as Dnyandeo Kachruji Wankhede. "Half info shared by people with evil thoughts to defame Sameer Wankhede.

There was an error made. Later this was duly rectified by Mr. DNYANDEV with all legal formalities and procedures in 1989. All the documents were accepted and verified by the school principal then and now too," said the officer's wife Kranti Redkar-Wankhede, posting the purportedly corrected SLCs, challenging the ones given by Malik -- with a huge 3-year gap.