DFRAC Editor 
Sameer Wankhede, who has been trending on social media since October, is the name of a 2008 batch Indian Revenue Service officer. He is presently working as the Regional Director of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) based in Mumbai.
He is leading the investigation of Cordelia drug case. The same case in which Shah Rukh Khan’s son, along with two other accused– Arbaaz Merchant and Munmum Dhamecha were sent to NCB custody. Now, they have received the bail after Oct 28, 2021 Bombay Court hearing.
Sameer has become an important figure on social media after his name surfaced as the investigating officer in the Aryan Khan case. Looking at the Twitter trend for the month of October, it was found that ‘Sameer Wankhede’ was trending for the whole month.
Not only is the name of “Sameer Wankhede” trending on Twitter, but many Twitter accounts have also been opened in his name. These accounts have created confusion on Twitter as no one knows which is the real account of the zonal director of NCB.
When our team tried to search his name on twitter, a lot of accounts were shown.
Analyzing some of the accounts:
Account 1: Sameer Wankhede (@sameerwankhedee)
a) Joined Twitter on: September 2020
b) Total Tweets: 31
- Many replies on 5th September, 2020.
In this reply, he has said “Coming Soon”, this was mentioned for the game #FAUG, which was made in replacement of #PUBG .
In this reply also, he has said “We are Coming”, again to mention the upcoming game named #FAUG .
- First tweet on October 5, 2021.
Before first tweet, only replies are seen in his account. All the replies were “Coming soon” or “We are coming”. These replies were done on 5th Sept, 2020 and 8th Sept 2020. First tweet came up on 5th Oct, 2021, which was dedicated to show his new profile picture.
This profile picture was changed exactly 3 days after Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan Khan was sent to NCB custody due to Cordelia drug case.
- It seemed quite strange that account opened in Sept 2020, has not tweeted even once before October 5th, 2021. On digging more about him, our team came across a tweet of Ajayendra Urmila Tripathi ,where he has mentioned this account to be fake and it has changed the username from @FAUGtweets to @sameerwankhedee on October 5, 2021.
- Through Wayback machine, our team tried to search previous tweets by the username of @FAUGtweets.
- When our team checked the Data User ID of @FAUGtweets and @sameerwankhedee, both were found to be same i.e., 1301945427097350149
- This proves that the above account is a Fake account in the name of Sameer Wankhede.
Account 2: Sameer wankhede (@samer_wankhede)
a) Joined twitter on: September 2021
b) Total Tweets: 1359
- On scrolling the tweets of this account and analyzing the reply to this account, it was found that this account has changed its username from @BinitaS57 to @samer_wankhede
- Through Wayback machine, our team tried to search previous tweets by the username of @BinitaS57.
- When our team checked the Data User ID of @BinitaS57 and @samer_wankhede, both were found to be same i.e., 1435505280574316550
- This proves that the account with @samer_wankhede is also fake account of Sameer Wankhede.
There are more than 90 accounts in the name of Sameer Wankhede. All are fake as Sameer Wankhede is not on any social media platform as is clarified by his wife, Kranti Redkar Wankhede.
Even when google search is performed for “Sameer Wankhede”, a twitter account is shown.
The account shown in Google search is also not the original account of Sameer Wankhede. Beware of such accounts. Many twittarati frequently change usernames, usually to the name of the person who is currently in the news. This is done mostly to gain followers on social media platforms.
The same happened when the Twitter account of Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut was suspended in May 2021. As soon as his account was suspended, several fake accounts were created in his name and some Twitter users changed their usernames to her name. Listing some of the accounts below:
Accounts that changed their username to Kangana Ranaut:
| S. No. | Twitter Account | Created On | Observations |
| 1 | @KanganaOffical | Dec,2019 | No post before May, 2021. Exactly the time when Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut’s account was suspended. This means the earlier tweets were deleted. |
| 2. | @KanganaTeamNew1 | Dec, 2019 | No posts before August 5, 2021. Earlier posts may have been deleted. |
| 3. | @kangnaaRanauut | Aug, 2020 | First post on June 17, 2021. Old posts must have been deleted to change the username in the name of Kangana Ranaut |
New accounts created in the name of Kangana Ranaut
| S. No. | Twitter Account | Created On |
| 1 | @realkangana_12 | Sept 2021 |
| 2 | @IkanganaR | July 2021 |
| 3 | @BrandKangana | May 2021 |
Such accounts are easily available on social media in the name of celebrities. It is our responsibility not to fall prey to them.
Dilshad Noor 
Nisar Ahmed Siddiqui 
Aayushi Rana