Mumbai: The Thane district collector has cancelled the licence granted to a Navi Mumbai-based hotel and bar owned by former NCB Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede, officials said on Wednesday.
Maharashtra: Thane collector cancels the licence granted to Sadguru hotel & bar in Navi Mumbai, owned by former NCB Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede for misrepresenting his age in the licence application filed in 1997 pic.twitter.com/8MFvgHykPq
— ANI (@ANI) February 2, 2022
The licence was obtained by misrepresentation and fraud, Collector Rajesh Narvekar said in an order on Tuesday.
“We had a hearing in January and issued the order on February 2, 2022, cancelling Wankhede’s licence as he was underaged (to obtain the licence when he did so)’’
As per the order, Section 54 of the Maharashtra Prohibition Act has been invoked for the cancellation of the licence.
NCP minister Nawab Malik first brought up the issue in November and the Thane unit of the state excise then issued a showcause notice to Wankhede about the licence of the Navi Mumbai bar.
An initial investigation by the local excise revealed that on the day Wankhede was granted a licence for a bar and restaurant on October 27, 1997, he was only 17, way below the stipulated age of 21.
Based on the findings, the excise department sent a letter to the Thane collector and Thane excise superintendent to take action.
Malik had also said that despite being in a government job, Wankhede held a licence to operate the permit room which was against service rules. Wankhede had then denied the minister’s claims.
Malik had levelled a series of allegations against Wankhede, after the latter led a raid on a cruise ship in October last year and claimed to have seized drugs onboard. Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan and some others were accused in the drugs-on-cruise case.
