Mumbai/IBNS/UNI: The Enforcement Directorate told the Bombay High Court on Tuesday that it will not arrest IRS officer and former NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede till March 1 in the alleged money laundering case.

A bench of Justices PD Naik and NR Borkar took the ED’s statement on record and asked the investigating agency to produce the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) that day, March 1.

Following the case being registered, Wankhede had earlier moved the court to challenge the case registered against him.

The ED registered a money laundering case against Wankhede based on an FIR by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleging that the officer demanded Rs 25 crore from actor Shah Rukh Khan not to include his son’s name in the Cordelia cruise drug bust case.

In his plea, Wankhede, a 2008 batch IRS officer of the Customs and Indirect Taxes cadre, has alleged that the ED case is due to a “counter blast” to his complaint against NCB's Deputy Director General Gyaneshwar Singh.

He has also described the case as "smacks of malice and vendetta” and urged the court to grant protection from any coercive action by the central agency.