The Bombay high court on Wednesday extended the interim protection from coercive action granted to former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede till July 5 after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) submitted to the court the case diary detailing its seven-day interrogation of the IRS officer.

A division bench comprising Justice A S Gadkari and justice S G Dige was hearing Wankhede’s petition that had sought to quash the FIR registered by the CBI against him in connection with the 2021 Cordelia cruise drugs bust case.

During the hearing, the counsel for the CBI submitted that its investigation, which was at a preliminary stage, would be prejudiced if the protection to the petitioner continued.

Appearing for Wankhede, senior advocate Aabad Ponda said the central agency did not have a prior sanction as per section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act to register an FIR.

Wankhede was employed by the ministry of finance as director, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, and even while he was loaned to the NCB, his status had not changed, he said. “However, the CBI obtained the sanction from the home ministry and hence, it was not valid.”

In compliance with the HC orders in the previous hearing, on June 23, the CBI on Wednesday submitted the case diary of the investigation.

The bench said it would examine the diary before considering the agency’s request for vacating the interim protection granted to Wankhede. It extended the protection till July 5, the next day of hearing.

The CBI on May 11 booked Wankhede, two other former NCB officers and two private persons for allegedly conspiring to extort ₹25 crore from actor Shah Rukh Khan in exchange of not booking his son Aryan in the Cordelia case. The FIR was registered based on the findings recorded by NCB’s deputy director general Gyaneshwar Singh in his special enquiry team probe report.

Wankhede had claimed in his affidavit that he was being victimised by his then agency superiors.