Aryan Khan to get out of jail today after paperwork

Aryan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, his friend Arbaaz Merchant and model Munmun Dhamecha, are likely to walk out of jail on Saturday.

Aryan Khan will spend Friday night in jail after his release papers missed the prison deadline, a day after the Bombay high court ended his 25-day custody by granting him bail in a drug case that raised questions of questionable proof and investigative overreach.

Police stand guard outside the Arthur Road Jail (Photo by Punit PARANJPE / AFP)(AFP)

Aryan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, his friend Arbaaz Merchant and model Munmun Dhamecha, are likely to walk out of jail on Saturday.

All of them were arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on October 3 after a drug raid on a cruise ship and charged under the stringent Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

The high court issued a five-page bail order and listed 14 bail conditions, including surrendering of passport, no influencing of witnesses or contacting co-accused, and presenting themselves in the NCB office every week.

The court stipulated a personal bond of ₹1 lakh each with one or two sureties of the same amount, and said it will release a detailed order with reasons next week.

Actor Juhi Chawla appeared before the special NDPS court along with Aryan’s counsel, advocate Satish Maneshinde, as surety for Aryan. No sureties were presented for Merchant and Dhamecha.

“I am happy that this all is over and Aryan will come home soon,” Chawla told reporters outside the Mumbai sessions court.

But a Friday release for the 23-year-old was thwarted because the documents reached Arthur Road jail — where he was lodged for alleged consumption of drugs and conspiracy — too late.

“As per the jail manual, the procedure is that documentation (for release) should be completed till 5:30pm and his documents did not reach us. After due course process, he will be released from jail tomorrow (Saturday),” said Nitin Vychal, superintendent of Arthur Road jail.

For a prison inmate to get bail, their release papers have to be put inside a rusted steel letter box that is installed outside the jail.

The bail box is opened four times in a day, at 5.30am, 10.30am, 3.30pm and 5pm. Apart from this, on Sundays and on government holidays, the bail box is opened only at 5.30am.

Aryan and Merchant are lodged in Arthur Road jail and Dhamecha at the Byculla women prison.

Aryan’s lawyers criticised the delays that prevented the 23-year-old from being released on Friday.

“We are following archaic rules in transmission of orders from the Supreme Court and high courts in this electronic age which is causing untold misery to under trials since ages. We need urgent reforms in our criminal justice system,” said Satish Maneshinde, Aryan’s lawyer.

“Our country is progressing in a fast track mode but the judicial system is the most neglected wing of our polity. We need to convince the world at large that human rights have an equally prominent place in our system.”

Munmun Dhamecha’s counsel, Kashif Ali Khan Deshmukh, said they will approach the Bombay high court again.

“We are moving for cash bail. As Munmun Dhamecha is not a resident of Mumbai we are facing problems with surety to release her,” he said.

Justice Nitin W Sambre on Friday ordered the three accused to surrender their passports to the investigation officer and not leave the country without prior permission of the court.

Other bail conditions included: furnishing the itinerary to the investigating officer for travelling outside Mumbai, no statements to the media about the case, no activity relating to drugs, no contact with any other accused or other people indulging in the sale, purchase or consumption of drugs, no action prejudicial to the proceedings pending before the special NDPS court, no influencing any witness or tampering with evidence, being present before the investigating officer of the NCB every Friday between 11am and 2pm, and joining the agency’s probe as and when called.

They have also been ordered to attend the trial court on all dates, unless prevented by a reasonable cause and not to try and delay the trial.

The court specified that the NCB shall be entitled to move the special NDPS court in Mumbai for cancellation of the bail if any of them violated any of the 14 conditions.

Aryan was arrested by NCB on October 3, a day after NCB Mumbai zonal chief Sameer Wankhede led a raid on the cruise ship Cordelia docked off the Mumbai coast.

Wankhede said that 13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams of mephedrone, 21 grams of charas, 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy), and ₹1.33 lakh in cash were recovered from the ship. He also claimed that Aryan was linked to international drug cartels, and therefore needed to remain in custody.

But the case turned on its head last Sunday, when a key NCB witness alleged that 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 a vigilance inquiry into Wankhede.

As delays mounted, experts doubted whether protocol was breached during the raid – private individuals like Sail’s employer Kiran Gosavi, who was arrested in Pune on extortion charges on Thursday, were seen assisting officials and walking into the NCB office despite holding no official position in any law enforcement agency.

Moreover, the relatively small quantity of drugs recovered – only 6 grams of charas were found from Merchant’s shoe – made experts question the serious charges and the prolonged jail stay through hearings, delays and bail denials by a special NDPS court and sessions court before the matter was taken up by the high court on Tuesday.

In court, Aryan’s lawyer Mukul Rohatgi, a former attorney general, argued that WhatsApp conversations, which the NCB was relying on, were from 2018-20 and not related to the cruise.

He argued that the arrest was an infringement of constitutional provisions and that the prosecution’s case was far-fetched, given that there was no recovery of drugs from Aryan, and no medical examination was conducted.