- Sunday, November 24, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
MUMBAI’S Esplanade Court on Monday (4) sent Aryan Khan, the 23-year-old son of Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan, Arbaz Seth Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha to the custody of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) till October 7.
Earlier, the country’s anti-drugs agency NCB told the court that he has to stay in its custody for a longer period.
Aryan was arrested in a cruise ship drugs case on Sunday (3) evening.
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The agency told the court that unless it investigated the customer, it would be difficult to know who us the supplier and who is financing it. According to the NCB, an international cartel is apparently involved in the high-profile case.
Aryan and seven others have been charged with various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The NCB has invoked four sections of the NDPS Act so far, including Section 8(c) which has wide provisions for producing, manufacturing, possessing, selling, buying, transporting, using, consuming, importing, exporting any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance, the Indian Express daily reported. That section was read with three others, the report added.
Aryan argued that he was a special invitee to the cruise ship and “cannot be roped in with the entire seizure in the case”.
“They say they have found conversation on the phone which leads them to international drug trade. In my entire stay aboard I was not involved any drug usage,” senior advocate Satish Manshinde, appearing for Aryan, said.
He said the investigators searched Aryan’s bag and did not find anything.
“They found something on his friend Arbaaz merchant. They found 6 gm which is a small quantity. The other seizures were not from any of them and with whom he has no connections,” Manshinde added.
Urging the court to consider his bail, Aryan said: “One of the grounds for asking my custody is seizure of commercial quantity from other accused. Commercial quantity seized from other accused cannot be foisted on me. They are talking about international drug trafficking which is a very serious charge and has to be backed by evidence. WhatsApp chat without any recovery is not of significance… in several cases learned judges have granted bail and not tagged entire seizure.”
Aryan was arrested from a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast where a rave party was apparently being held. The NCB officials’ raid yielded 13 grams of cocaine, 21 grams of charas, 22 pills of MDMA and five grams of MD, the agency said. The drugs were recovered from suspects who had hidden them in their clothes, undergarments and purses, the Press Trust of India reported quoting an unnamed official of the bureau.
Initially, the eight people – Aryan Khan, Munmun Dhamecha, Nupur Sarika, Ismeet Singh, Mohak Jaswal, Vikrant Chhoker, Gomit Chopra and Arbaaz Merchant – were taken for questioning and were later formally arrested.
