The head of the SIT set up by the Narcotics Control Bureau to probe the Cordilia drug bust case also involving Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan has taken voluntary retirement from service a year ahead of tenure. His request for VRS to the Ministry of Home Affairs was forwarded to the Odisha government. On Thursday, his request was approved.
A 1996-batch Odisha cadre officer of the Indian Police Service, Sanjay Singh currently serves as the Deputy Director General of the Narcotics Control Bureau. He had another year of service left.
“On February 29, I had put in a request to take voluntary retirement from the service. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that the state (Odisha) government would be the competent authority to approve my request. Today I was informed that the request has been approved and April 30 will be my last date. I have received relaxation in the three month notice period,” Singh told The Indian Express.
Appointed as the DDG of the NCB in January 2021, Singh led the Special Investigation Team which took over the drugs-on-cruise case from Mumbai NCB head Sameer Wankhede in November 2021. The SIT later gave Aryan Khan a clean chit in the case. The SIT was formed under Singh following controversy over the probe led by Wankhede, the then Zonal NCB Director.
After beginning the probe afresh, the SIT concluded that there were inconsistencies in the earlier probe and there was not enough material to name the six as accused in the case. In its chargesheet filed in May 2022, the NCB named 14 persons as accused while giving a clean chit to six persons named in the FIR including Aryan Khan.
Prior to joining the NCB, Singh served in various capacities as the head of the Drug Task Force (DTF) of the Odisha Police as Additional Director General (ADG). He also worked with CBI from 2008-2015 as Deputy Inspector General (DIG) and handled several high-profile cases.