Dr Zaheed Qureshi said that when his daughter Shabana married Sameer Wankhede, the latter practiced Islam, and would occasionally visit mosques.
MUMBAI: The father of the first wife of NCB’s Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede on Thursday claimed that he always knew the Wankhede family as followers of Islam and that the name of the officer’s father was Dawood.
His claim came against the backdrop of Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik’s allegations that Sameer 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.
After Malik’s allegation, the NCB officer had said that his father Dnyandev Kachruji Wankhede was a Hindu and his late mother Zaheeda was a Muslim.
He said his father retired as senior police inspector of the state Excise department, Pune, in June 2007.
“We always knew the Wankhede family as followers of Islam. In fact, I always knew Dnyandev as Dawood Wankhede. We agreed to the marriage of my daughter Dr Shabana with Sameer because we had cordial relations with his late mother Zaheeda,” Dr Qureshi said.
“It was an arranged marriage between Dr Shabana and Sameer, which took place in 2006. However, after the divorce, as it was a painful thing for us and we never discussed it and buried it in our minds. We even moved on with our lives,” he said.
