Mumbai: A special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act court in Mumbai will resume hearing on Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan’s bail plea at 11 am on Wednesday.
The court on Monday had asked the NCB to file its reply regarding the matter by October 13, after Aryan’s legal counsel Satish Maneshinde pushed for his bail, stating that he was “falsely implicated” in the case in which he has been tagged as the prime accused.
The plea further stated that the anti-drug agency has no grounds to keep him in custody since no psychotropic substances were recovered from him and hence, the bar of Section 37(1) of the NDPS Act, 1985, which talks of serious offences which are cognizable and non-bailable, does not apply to him.
The NCB is also not in possession of any incriminating material against him, it added.
“There is nothing on record to suggest that 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 or psychotropic substances and, hence, the ingredients of any offence under the NDPS Act, 1985 are not prima facie made out in respect of Khan,” the bail petition stated.
The plea further said that the alleged WhatsApp chats between Aryan Khan and supposed drug peddlers had no connection with the case being investigated.
Senior lawyer Taraq Sayyed, who is representing Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha in the case, asked in the court why would the accused go on the ship to sell five grams of charas when they can buy the entire ship?
The NCB has been hinting at an “international drug trafficking” network after recovering banned drugs from some persons aboard the Goa-bound cruise ship,
The case came to the special court after a magistrate’s court rejected Aryan’s plea on the ground that it did not have the jurisdiction to decide on the matter and sent him and seven others to 14-day judicial custody.
Aryan and eight others were arrested on October 3, after a raid on a cruise ship a day before.
