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NDPS court rejects Aryan Khan’s bail application in drugs’ case
NCB opposed Aryan’s bail plea, contending he was in touch with a person abroad who appeared to be part of an international drug trafficking network
A special Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act court on Wednesday refused bail to Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan. Special NDPS judge VV Patil also rejected bail applications filed by Aryan’s friend Arbaaz Merchant and model Munmun Dhamecha. The trio was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in connection with the cruise drug bust of October 2.
A team of NCB officials headed by the agency’s Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede acted on a specific tip off and searched some passengers slated to take Cordellia cruise to Goa from the International Cruise Terminal at Green Gate in Mumbai. Their rooms booked on the cruise ship were also searched.
The agency claimed to have seized multiple drugs such as 13 grams of Cocaine, 5 grams of Mephedrone, 21 grams of Charas, and 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy) and ₹1.33 lakh in cash from the cruise.
14 persons were intercepted and after hours of interrogation, 23-year-old Aryan, Arbaaz, 26, and Dhamecha, 39, were placed under arrest in the afternoon of October 3. The trio moved the special NDPS court after a Metropolitan Magistrate on October 10 rejected their bail applications, holding them not maintainable before him.
NCB opposed Aryan’s bail plea, contending he was in touch with a person abroad who appeared to be part of an international drug trafficking network. The agency also claimed there was sufficient material in the form of pictures, WhatsApp chats to show that the 23-year-old was part of an illicit drug chain.
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The agency also maintained that Aryan’s case could not be separated from others, from whom independent seizure of contraband in commercial quantity was made, as “all the accused were part of an illicit drug chain.” It was alleged that Aryan Khan was a regular consumer of the contraband since the last few years and 6 grams Charas, allegedly found on Arbaaz, was meant for the duo’s consumption.
On Aryan Khan’s behalf, it was argued that by no stretch of imagination the boy can be said to be involved in illicit drug trafficking or international drug racket and that he cannot be linked to any of the seizures made by the NCB. His counsel added that even if it was accepted that Aryan was a consumer, the charge attracts maximum punishment of a year and therefore he deserves to be released on bail.
