Mumbai, October 13
A special has said it would hear the bail application of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, arrested in connection with the seizure of banned drugs onboard a cruise ship, on October 13 and directed the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to file its reply on that date.
Special Judge V V Patil, hearing matters related to the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, said the court would hear the bail plea on Wednesday after the NCB said there was “no extreme urgency” to hear the application and sought a week to file an affidavit. The defence said Aryan Khan was “falsely implicated” and releasing him on bail would not stop the probe.
Aryan Khan was arrested on October 3 after the NCB raided a Goa-bound cruise ship off the Mumbai coast and claimed to have recovered drugs from some persons. He is currently in judicial custody and lodged at the Arthur Road prison in Mumbai.
He approached the special court for bail on October 8 after his plea for the same was rejected by a magistrate’s court last week on the ground that it did not have the jurisdiction to decide the matter.
In his plea, Aryan Khan said he was innocent and has not committed any crime and that he has been falsely implicated in the case.
“There is nothing on record to suggest that the present applicant (Aryan Khan) is in any way connected with the production, manufacture, possession, sale, purchase, transport, import, export or use of any psychotropic substance or the financing, illicit trafficking and/or harbouring of offenders in relation to any narcotic drugs,” the bail application said.
It added that no incriminating contraband drugs or any other material were recovered from Aryan Khan and that he had strong roots in the society and hence there was no likelihood of him absconding or fleeing from justice.
It is learned that Shah Rukh’s family has been “trying desperately” to meet Aryan once more and mother Gauri is becoming “progressively anxious,” according to a media report.
On Monday, when Aryan Khan’s counsel Amit Desai mentioned the bail plea, NCB’s advocates A M Chimalkar and Advait Sethna sought a week to respond and file their affidavit.
They said the investigation in the case was still on and there was quite a lot of material collected by the agency and at this stage, it needs to be seen if releasing Aryan Khan on bail would hamper the probe into the case.
Desai, however, objected to it, saying a person’s liberty is at question here and argued that releasing the accused on bail would not stop the investigation in the case.
Apart from Aryan Khan, four other accused in the case – Arbaaz Merchant, Munmun Dhamecha, Nupur Sateja, and Mohak Jaiswal – have also filed bail pleas in the special court. The NCB has so far arrested 20 people in the case.
Aryan Khan has been charged with offences under Sections 8(c), 20(b), 27, 28, 29 and 35 of the NDPS Act about the possession, consumption and purchase of drugs.
In a related development, a local court here on Monday remanded six accused – Okaro Ouzama, Abdul Kadir, Shreyas Nair, Manish Rajgariya, Chinedu Pgwe and Shivraj Ramdas – in the case to judicial custody till October 25. PTI/agencies
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