E-Paper
‘Loopholes...’: NCB chief explains clean chit to Aryan Khan in drugs case
The anti-drug agency chief said that 14 people were named in the chargesheet on basis of strong evidence. He added that six people (including Aryan Khan) were not included because there was not enough evidence.
After Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan was given a clean chit in the Mumbai drugs case, the Narcotics Bureau chief said the initial investigation had loopholes which led to the formation of the Special Investigation Team.
“The Special Investigation Team was formed because there were irregularities in the investigation at the local level. There were some loopholes and the SIT was formed to fix them. We also took action against some officials,” NCB chief SN Pradhan said at the presser.
The anti-drug agency chief said that 14 people were named in the chargesheet on basis of strong evidence. He added that six people (including Aryan Khan) were not included because there was not enough evidence.
“Six people were not included in the chargesheet. There were some loopholes in the preliminary investigation. We can say there was not sufficient evidence against them,” Pradhan added.
"The Supreme Court had said that the principle of preponderance and probability is not applicable to NDPS Act. There should be beyond reasonable doubt, we did not find such evidence," he added.
The NCB team led by former zonal director Sameer Wankhede which had arrested Khan on October 2, had claimed that the accused were a part of a large conspiracy. Relying on the WhatsApp chats, the NCB had alleged that the superstar's son was in touch with a foreign drug supplier as the chats referred to ‘hard drugs’ in bulk.
“There should be physical corroboration of WhatsApp chat. Courts have clarified that WhatsApp chat, in itself, holds no value. You can talk about anything on WhatsApp but if not corroborated with physical evidence, it's not complete evidence,” the NCB chief said.
