MUMBAI: Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan will not have to appear before the Mumbai zonal office of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) every Friday as required under the court order granting him bail, the Bombay high court ruled on Wednesday accepting the request by the 24-year-old to relax the bail conditions since NCB’s zonal office is not handling his case any longer.
Aryan Khan, arrested by NCB a day after the agency’s October 2 raid of a cruise ship docked off the Mumbai coast, was granted bail on October 28 on 14 conditions, including the ones that required him to surrender his passport and appear at the NCB office in Mumbai every week.
But the case involving Aryan Khan was among the six cases “with national and international ramifications” handed over to a Delhi-headquartered special investigation team (SIT) set up by NCB chief SN Pradhan on November 5 after multiple controversies around NCB Mumbai’s zonal director Sameer Wankhede.
In his application to relax the bail conditions, Aryan Khan said since the case has been transferred to the SIT, he should be exempted from appearing before the anti-drug agency’s office in Mumbai.
Justice NW Sambre allowed relaxation on Wednesday and ordered Arya Khan, 24, to appear before the SIT in Delhi as and when directed by the agency. The high court told NCB to give Khan at least a 72-hour notice to make the travel arrangements.
{{/usCountry}}Justice NW Sambre allowed relaxation on Wednesday and ordered Arya Khan, 24, to appear before the SIT in Delhi as and when directed by the agency. The high court told NCB to give Khan at least a 72-hour notice to make the travel arrangements.
{{/usCountry}}The judge also modified another bail condition that required Aryan to furnish his itinerary to the NCB every time he travels out of Mumbai.
The high-profile case got shrouded in controversy when a key NCB witness alleged that the agency’s Mumbai zonal chief Sameer Wankhede was part of a ₹25 crore extortion racket targeting Aryan. The witness, Prabhakar Sail, also alleged that he was forced to sign sheets of blank paper, prompting the anti-drug agency to set up an inquiry into Wankhede.
Experts also raised doubts whether the protocol was breached during the raid – private individuals like Sail’s employer Kiran Gosavi, who was arrested in Pune on extortion charges, were seen assisting officials and walking into the Narcotics Control Bureau office despite holding no official position in any law enforcement agency.
While granting bail to Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha in October, Justice Sambre noted that the NCB claim that they should be considered to have the intention to commit an offence under the NDPS Act (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act), having found in possession of commercial quantity, in the backdrop of case of hatching conspiracy is liable to be rejected.
No drugs were found in Aryan Khan’s possession while the quantity recovered from Merchant and Dhamecha were ‘small’ under the NDPS Act, the court noted. NCB has alleged it seized 13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams of mephedrone MD, 21 grams of charas and 22 pills of MDMA ecstasy after its raid on the cruise ship.