Dalit groups accuse Sameer Wankhede of falsifying his caste certificate to get government job

Two Dalit organisations have filed a complaint against Sameer Wankhede, the zonal head of the Narcotics Control Bureau, saying that he displayed a forged caste certificate. The two organisations, Swabhimani Republican Party and Bhim Army, said Wankhede lied about his caste in order to acquire a government position under the SC category.

NCP leader Nawab Malik had previously stated during a news conference a few days ago: ‘I want to make it clear that the issue I am exposing about Sameer Dawood Wankhede is not about his religion. I want to bring to light the fraudulent means by which he has obtained a caste certificate to get an IRS job and has deprived a deserving Scheduled Caste person of his future’.

Nawab Malik had also shared a copy of Wankhede’s birth certificate in a tweet, claiming that Wankhede is a Muslim by birth and so he is ineligible for induction into the Indian Revenue Services (IRS) under the Scheduled Caste (SC) category.

According to Malik, Sameer Wankhede, who was chosen through the Central Civil Services examination, was born to a father who had converted to Islam and Wankhede changed his father’s name in order to claim benefits under the restricted category. He is referred to as ‘Muslim’ in his birth certificate and his father is named ‘Dawood K Wankhede.’ As per Nawab Malik, Dalits who convert to Islam are not eligible for quota.

Surprisingly, Malik confesses that Sameer Wankhede’s father, Dnyandev Wankhede, was born into a Dalit family in Maharashtra’s old Washim region, but converted to Islam and took the name Dawood after marrying a Muslim woman in Mumbai.

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Dnyandev Wankhede, according to the NCP leader, used his caste certificate as an afterthought to assure reservation benefits for his two children.

Sameer Wankhede, in response to the charges, stated that his father’s name is ‘Dnyandev’ not ‘Dawood.’ In addition, the IRS official stated that he comes from a ‘multi-religious, secular’ household. ‘My father is a Hindu and my mother was a Muslim’, he said. To prove his claims, Sameer Wankhede has also circulated the caste certificate of his father.