Aryan Khan to stay in NCB custody till October 7 in drugs case, says court
Counsel for the anti-narcotic agency said that it needed custody of the son of actor Shah Rukh Khan to probe ‘international transactions’ related to the case.
A magistrate’s court in Mumbai on Monday ordered that Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan will remain in the custody of the Narcotics Control Bureau till October 7 in a drug-related case, reported Bar and Bench.
The Narcotics Control Bureau had on Sunday morning detained Aryan Khan and seven others after it raided a party on a cruise ship off the coast of Mumbai and seized drugs on board. On Sunday evening, Aryan Khan and two others, Munmun Dhamecha and Arbaaz Merchant, were arrested.
At Monday’s hearing, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate RM Nerlikar said that all the offences under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, under which the accused have been charged, are non-bailable.
“Therefore question of bailable or non-bailable do not arise,” the judge said, according to Live Law. “I am of the view that investigation is of prime importance. Considering this aspect, the presence of the accused with NCB [Narcotics Control Bureau] is necessary.”
All the eight accused in the case – Aryan Khan, Merchant, Dhamecha, Vikrant Chhoker, Ismeet Singh, Nupur Sarika, Gomit Chopra and Mohak Jaswal – were produced in Mumbai’s Esplanade court. They have all been remanded to custody of the Narcotics Control Bureau till October 7, reported ANI.
One more person, identified as Shreyas Nair, has also been arrested by the agency on Monday, according to ANI.
During Monday’s hearing, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, representing the Narcotics Control Bureau, had sought custody of Aryan Khan till October 11, according to Live Law. He said that the accused had to be confronted and that alleged “international transactions” related to the case needed to be investigated.
“There is incriminating material found through WhatsApp chats with drug peddlers,” the additional solicitor general said, according to Bar and Bench. “Raids are going on now. Shocking incriminating material in WhatsApp shows international drug trafficking.”
Advocate Taraq Sayed, representing Arbaaz Merchant, sought the panchnamas (witness testimony) and noted that the quantity seized from each person had not been specified, reported Live Law. “The remand is absolutely silent on this aspect,” the lawyer said. “They are only saying I [Merchant] was going to use.”
Sayed contended that the Narcotics Control Bureau had made a scapegoat out of Aryan Khan with the claim “that he was going to consume” narcotic substances.
Aryan Khan, through his, lawyer Satish Maneshinde, had filed a bail application for bail. In the plea, the actor’s son had contended that he was arrested only on the basis of some chat messages, NDTV reported.
“Aryan had no ticket, no cabin or seat on board the cruise,” the channel quoted Maneshinde as saying. “He was there because he had been invited. He did not even have a boarding pass. Nothing has been found on him. He was arrested on the basis of [the] chat only.”
The Narcotics Control Bureau had seized 13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams of mephedrone, 21 grams of charas, 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy) and Rs 1,33,000 from the cruise ship.
The agency had on Sunday also interrogated five people – Ismeet Singh, Nupur Sarika, Mohak Jaswal, Vikrant Chhoker and Gomit Chopra, according to ANI.
NCB chief SN Pradhan had said on Sunday that the raids were the result of a two-week investigation, ANI reported. “We acted on specific intelligence inputs, involvement of some Bollywood links has come to light,” he said.