Mumbai: Court cites messages recovered from Armaan Kohli's phone while denying bail in drugs case

Armaan Kohli. File Pic/Suresh Karkera

Chats, messages and videos recovered from actor Armaan Kolhi's mobile phone indicate on the face of it that he was involved in illicit drug trafficking, a special court has said while rejecting his bail application.

The special judge for cases under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, A A Jogelkar, rejected the actor's bail plea on October 14. The detailed order became available on October 22.

Kohli was arrested in the last week of August. As per the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), 1.2 grams of MD was recovered from Kohli's house, while bigger quantities of drugs were recovered from the co-accused in the case. The court held that after examining the material obtained during the probe, "prima-facie" it seemed that Kohli was "well-connected with the co-accused pertaining to illicit trafficking of drugs."

Special prosecutor Advait Sethna had submitted chats/messages between Kohli and the co-accused along with their bank statements before the court.
The judge noted that bank transactions corroborated alleged transactions (revealed from the chats). Kohli failed to explain the purpose of contraband recovered from his house and the financial transactions, the court said.

"Contents in the chats and videos also propagate for the indulgence of the applicant in illicit trafficking prima-facie and therefore the prosecution seems to have invoked section 27A (of the NDPS Act) against the applicant/accused," the judge said. Section 27 (A) is about punishment for financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders. The investigation was at a nascent stage, the court observed while rejecting the bail plea.

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