Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to Aryan Khan and two other accused – Arbaz Merchant and Munmum Dhamecha – in drugs on cruise case.
The single-judge bench of Justice Nitin W Sambre granted bail to the three after hearing Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who represented Aryan, and ASG Anil Singh for Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
Detailed order with reasons is likely to be released on Friday, Live Law reported.
Also Read: Why Judgment On Aryan Khan’s Bail Hearing Should Be Out By October 31?
Rohatgi had argued that Aryan’s arrest was made in sheer violation of Article 22 of the Constitution and he was not informed about the correct grounds for arrest.
“Aryan knew nobody on the ship except for Arbaaz and Achit, who was arrested after 4 days. He was said to be a dealer and had 2.4 gms (of drug). A dealer should have 200 gms,” he told the court.
ASG Anil Singh opposed the bail on the grounds that the arrest memo had mentioned about commercial quantity of drugs. He claimed that the star kid made an attempt to deal in commercial quantity of drugs and the NCB’s case was never about ‘consumption’. “Aryan Khan was aware that Arbaaz was in possession. Charas was for smoking and it was for the consumption of both though it was with Arbaaz physically,” he argued.
He also highlighted Section 29 of the NDPS Act which deals with conspiracy. “Section 29 does not say that the person has to be in possession. He made an attempt to deal with commercial quantity,” the ASG added
Aryan, arrested on October 3 after a late-night raid on a cruise ship, has been in judicial custody since October 8. His bail plea was rejected twice earlier by the magistrate and Special NDPS courts.
