Fardeen Khan’s lawyer recalls what Feroz Khan said during 2001 cocaine case: ‘We don’t want any false defence’

Advocate Ayaz Khan, who defended Fardeen Khan in a drug-related case, recalled how the actor’s father, late actor Feroz Khan, was against ‘false defence’. Fardeen was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in May 2001 while allegedly attempting to purchase one gram of cocaine.

Speaking to a leading daily, Ayaz said that he first understood the facts of the case. “What I realised after meeting and speaking to Fardeen during a legal interview with him was that the prosecution said that he was trying to buy one gram of cocaine and Nasir Shaikh, the peddler, had more quantity. Fardeen had punched in ₹3500 at a bank ATM to purchase that one gram. The money could not be withdrawn as the card got swallowed by the machine. This was the point we had to work with, and Fardeen’s dad Feroz Khan told me specially, ‘We don’t want any false defence’.”

One gram is a ‘small quantity’, Ayaz said, and the allegation against Fardeen was an attempt to consume. “We want bail in such cases, you cannot keep them in jail although the prosecution argued that Fardeen was consuming drugs for a really long time, but my defence was, if he has been consuming drugs for a long time, even then he still remains a consumer. There were arguments and Fardeen was in NCB custody for two or three days. We immediately applied for bail and got it soon from NDPS court,” he said.

Also see: Kareena Kapoor wants to sleep over at Saif Ali Khan’s home in old cola ad, Preity Zinta-Fardeen Khan feature too

The drug possession charge against Fardeen was dropped in 2012. He was granted immunity in the case after undergoing a de-addiction programme at KEM Hospital. However, he was warned that the immunity would be withdrawn if he was found to be in possession of drugs in the future.

Fardeen has acted in films such as Fida, No Entry and Heyy Babyy. He was last seen on the big screen in Dulha Mil Gaya in 2010. He will soon make his comeback with Visfot, directed by Kookie Gulati, and co-starring Riteish Deshmukh and Priya Bapat.