Cruise drug bust: Nothing found on Aryan Khan’s person

The Narcotics Control Bureau NCB on Sunday arrested Aryan Khan the son of leading Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan and seven others after seizing drugs during a raid on Goabound Cordelia Cruises In the court the agency said Aryan has been booked only for consumption as of now His lawyer told the court that he was invited by the organiser of a party that was held on the cruiseAfter interrogation the NCB arrested Khan actor Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha and produced them in the court The agency got oneday custody of the trio and will again seek their judicial custody on MondayThe drugs seized from the accused Pic CreditNCBLater in the day the agency also arrested the othersmdashNupur Satija Ishmeet Singh Chadha Mohak Jaiswal Gomit Chopra and Vikrant Chhokar who will be produced before the court on MondaylsquoActed on a tipoffrsquoA few days back the antidrug agency received a tipoff about a party being organised aboard the cruise and that 810 people including Aryan were getting aboard with drugs The officers also boarded the cruise as guests and conducted the raid late Saturday night after a few hours of surveillance They seized drugs and detained the eight accusedldquoAround 22 officers including myself entered the cruise as guests We were all wearing masks so nobody recognised usrdquo a senior NCB officer told middayNCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede told midday ldquoWe had specific information about 810 people and during the searches we found an intermediate quantity of drugs and some incriminating chats that have been examinedrdquolsquoFound nothing on AryanrsquoThe officers said they raided two rooms belonging to the arrested accused They didnrsquot find anything on Aryan but drugs were found in possession of Arbaaz said officers ldquoArbaaz had hidden charas inside his shoes When we recovered it he said that it was for consumption At the time Aryan was also there with himrdquo they addedThe officers also said that Aryan in his voluntary statement told the NCB that the charas seized from Arbaaz was meant for consumption by both of them ldquoBoth were detained and taken to the NCB office We also found incriminating WhatsApp chats on their phones which shows their links with peddlers We are investigating the samerdquo an officer saidlsquoChats implicate AryanrsquoAdvocate Satish Maneshinde Aryanrsquos counsel told the court that lsquoAryan was invited on the cruise as a guest and nothing was found on him According to them NCB there are various chats that implicate himrdquo The agency informed the court that Aryan has been booked only on consumption charge as of nowldquoOffences are bailable Aryan was invited by the organisers of the party as a special invitee He just boarded the cruise and was seen with some friends and later taken into custody by the NCB They also took his phonerdquo Shinde said in the courtBy means of this statement I wish to express that Cordelia Cruises is in no way directly or indirectly connected to this incident Cordelia Cruises had chartered its ship for a private event to a Delhi based event management companyCordelia Cruises in a statement said that it is ldquoin no way directly or indirectly connected to this incident Cordelia Cruises had chartered its ship for a private event to a Delhibased event management company We condemn all acts such as these and will strictly refrain from letting our ship out for similar events in the future Cordelia Cruises is extending our full support and cooperating with the authoritiesrdquoWhat have they been booked forThe NCB slapped Section 8C produce manufacture possess sell purchase transport warehouse use consume import interstate export interstate import into India export from India or tranship any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance 20B produces manufactures possesses sells purchases transports imports interState exports interState or uses cannabis shall be punishablemdash1i where such contravention relates to clause a with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to ten years and shall also be liable to fine which may extend to one lakh rupees Section 27 punishment for consumption of any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance read with Section 35 presumption of culpable mental state of the NDPS ActFound on cruise According to the NCB during the raids on Cordelia Cruises officers seized drugs including 13 grams of cocaine 5 grams of MD mephedrone 21 grams of charas 22 pills of MDMA ecstasy and Rs 133000 in cash