Aryan Khan case: No evidence of conspiracy to commit drug-related offences, says Bombay HC
The court also said that the son of actor Shah Rukh Khan was not found with any drugs when the Narcotics Control Bureau conducted the raid on October 2.
The Bombay High Court on Saturday said there was no evidence of a conspiracy between Shah Rukh’s son Aryan Khan, his friend Arbaaz Merchant, and model Munmun Dhamecha to commit drug-related offences, Bar and Bench reported.
The court also said that the WhatsApp chats of Aryan Khan, Merchant, and Dhamecha had no objectionable content.
Aryan Khan, Merchant and Dhamecha were among several persons arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau after a raid on a cruise ship off the coast of Mumbai on October 2.
During the raid, the agency claimed to have seized 13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams of mephedrone, 21 grams of charas, 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy) and Rs 1.3 lakh from the ship.
Aryan Khan, Merchant, and Dhamecha were granted bail in the case on October 28 by the Bombay High Court, which had then delivered a short order.
The court’s complete order, released on Saturday, specified the reason behind granting the bail.
The High Court said that an evidence is required to prove that Aryan Khan, Merchant, and Dhamecha wanted to commit drug-related offences together, Bar and Bench reported.
“There is hardly any positive evidence on record to convince this court that all the accused persons with common intention agreed to commit an unlawful act,” the order read.
The court added that merely because Aryan Khan, Merchant, and Dhamecha were travelling in the same cruise, that by itself “cannot be a foundation for the charge of conspiracy against them”, NDTV reported.
The order also said that Aryan Khan had not carried any drugs during the raid, despite the Narcotics Control Bureau claiming in October that he had been found in “conscious possession” of contraband substances. The agency had also accused Aryan Khan of trying to deal in a commercial quantity of drugs.
The court, however, noted that a small quantity of contraband substances was recovered from Merchant and Dhamecha under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.