Cruise ship raid case: Court reserves order on Aryan Khan’s bail plea for October 20

Aryan Khan will spend a few more days at the Arthur Road Jail, as the special NDPS court reserved its order on his bail application on Thursday. It is likely to pronounce the judgment on October 20. In heated arguments in court, the NCB claimed that going by his WhatsApp chats, Aryan "has been into it [drugs] since the past few years". Aryan's counsel argued that language in the chats could mean something else.

Aryan, his friend Arbaaz Merchant and another accused Munmun Dhamecha, whom the NCB nabbed from the cruise liner after alleged seizure of drugs on October 2, had filed their respective pleas for bail. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), through the additional solicitor general (ASG), told the court that Aryan is also a part of a chain for procurement and distribution of contraband. He was in touch with some foreign nationals suspected to be a part of international drug cartel, the ASG added.

Aryan Khan. File pic

Senior advocate Amit Desai, who appeared for Aryan, once again highlighted that the NCB did not recover any drug from Aryan, and that the allegations made by the prosecution are baseless, based merely on WhatsApp chats. The ASG argued that Aryan "is not a normal consumer and he has been into it since the past few years, going by his chats." The language could seem like something different than what ought to be (expected) in a court of law and might lead to suspicion, advocate Desai argued. The prosecution added that going by the panchanama, it clearly establishes that he was in "conscious possession of drugs, as 6 grams of charas was found from Merchant was for the consumption of both".

To counter Desai, the agency relied on the case of Rhea Chakraborty where her brother Showik was not found in possession of any drugs, but was allegedly in touch with peddlers. Similarly, in Aryan's case, "he was not found in possession of drugs, but was in touch with the peddler arrested in the case. Hence, he is also not entitled to bail at this stage of the investigation," the additional solicitor general told the court. Meanwhile, Aryan and the two other accused have been shifted to the general barracks of the Arthur Road prison after completing their Covid-19 quarantine period.

Oct 2
Day the raid was conducted on cruise liner