Didn’t Convert, Fulfilled My Mother’s Wish: Sameer Wankhede On Nawab Malik’s ‘Nikah’ Jibe

NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede’s ‘nikah’ with his first wife became a subject of major controversy on Wednesday after Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik tweeted a photo that showed the agency officer with his first wife and a Nikahnama (marriage certificate). LIVE UPDATES

Wankhede, who is in the eye of a political storm following allegations of extortion in the high-profile drugs-on-cruise case in which megastar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan was arrested, said he indeed got married as per Islamic rituals as it was his Muslim mother’s wish but didn’t convert.

“Fulfilling the wish of one’s mother in a secular country is not a crime. I am proud of secularism in our country. My mother was a Muslim and my father is a Hindu. I love both of them very much,” Wankhede told PTI. Wankhede asserted that he never converted to Islam and he belonged to a Hindu caste. He said his first marriage with Dr Shabana Qureshi was registered under the Special Marriage Act within a month. “The process of divorce was also completed as per the Special Marriage Act. I was never converted to Islam and I belong to a Hindu caste of my family,” Wankhede claimed.

In 2017, Wankhede married Marathi actress Kranti Redkar. Reacting to the ‘nikah’ controversy, Redkar said that the Nikahnama is correct, but Wankhede never changed his religion. “Yes, there is a nikahnama… but Sameer never changed his name or religion…he got the nikahnama made at the request of his mother who is no more. The pic released by Nawab Malik is wrong…it defames us…we have filed a case against it at Oshiwara police station. Nawab Malik is doing this so that the case against his son-in-law is dropped,” Redkar said.

Nawab Malik had earlier alleged that Wankhede was born as a Muslim, but forged documents, including a caste certificate, to show that he belonged to the Hindu SC category to get a job under quota after clearing the UPSC examination.

Wankhede’s father, Dnyandev Wankhede, had, however, rubbished the minister’s charges, saying: “I myself am a Dalit.. all of us, my ancestors are Hindus…how can my son be a Muslim. Nawab Malik should understand this.”

(With PTI inputs)

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