Cruise ship drug bust case: NDPS court grants bail to two guests

The special NDPS judge Vaibhav Patil granted bail to Sahu and Rajgaria in the cruise drug bust case on furnishing personal bonds of ₹50,000 each and one or two sureties in the same amount

The special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court on Tuesday granted bail to two guests at the holiday cruise ship Cordelia — Avin Sahu and Manish Rajgaria. Both were arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the cruise drug bust case.

Both were arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the cruise drug bust case. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The special NDPS judge Vaibhav Patil granted bail to Sahu and Rajgaria, on furnishing personal bonds of ₹50,000 each and one or two sureties in the same amount.

Sana Raees Khan, who argued for Sahu, had told the court that the only allegation against him was that he had consumed ganja twice while on the cruise. However, there was no medical report and nothing was found in his possession.

“My case is slightly different from the case of Aryan Khan. In his case also there was no possession but there were chats or messages. In my case, there are no chats or messages. The only allegation against my client was he consumed ganja twice on the ship and the maximum punishment was one year’s imprisonment, even if the charge is accepted to be true. The material seized from others can’t be foisted on him. Section 29 of NDPS Act of conspiracy was applied mechanically when there was no meeting of minds between the accused.”

Raees had further argued that Sahu had been made a scapegoat in this matter because it has become a high profile case and it was a clear case of malicious prosecution. He pointed out the Apex court rulings that the act of an accused cannot be used as evidence against the other.

Advocates Taraq Sayed and Vikas Bhawaniya had argued for Rajgaria that nothing was found in his possession. They pointed out that in Rhea Chakraborty’s case also, the agency had arrested 33 people, however, not all of them were connected to each other. By adding the charge of conspiracy, the agency is claiming that whatever has been recovered from one, can be attributed to all, but the agency has failed to show any nexus between the accused.

NCB’s counsel Advait Sethna and Ruju Thakker argued that even after the raid and detention of several guests, Sahu had consumed ganja twice and 2.4 grams of ganja was seized from the security guard. The guard claimed that the ganja was given to him by Rajgaria.

Sahu and Rajgaria were arrested on October 5, after the holiday cruise returned from Goa.