Drugs probe: NCB searches cruise ship on its return to Mumbai, detains 8 people

The Narcotics Control Bureau detained eight people after searching a cruise ship on its return to Mumbai on Monday two days after a drugs party onboard the vessel was busted off the city coast an NCB official saidThe NCB also found some documents and some material suspected to be drugs after an over sixhourlong search onboard the ship the official said without divulging any further detailsThe antidrugs agency had on Saturday evening busted a drugs party on board the ship of the Cordelia Cruises company and arrested Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khans son Aryan Khan and seven others including two womenOn Monday the NCB got information that the ship returned to the city after two days Hence NCB officials including its zonal director Sameer Wankhede reached the cruise terminal and conducted searches onboard the vessel the official saidAlso Read Cruise drug raid case NCB seeks custody of Aryan Khan others till October 13The sleuths subsequently detained eight people and the latter were seen with travelling bags in their hands while they were being brought from the ship to the NCBs office hereAfter conducting searches on Monday the NCB is likely to record the statement of the cruise ship manager and owner the official saidOn Saturday evening an NCB team led by Wankhede had raided the ship based on a tipoff that a party was scheduled on board The sleuths seized 13 gm of cocaine 5 gm of MD 21 gm of charas and 22 pills of Ecstasy and Rs 133 lakh an official earlier saidDuring the raid over 20 officials of the Mumbai NCB had boarded the ship posing as customersThere were 1800 people on the ship but after checking all were asked to go except the eight including Aryan Khan the official saidBesides Aryan Khan the arrested accused were identified as Munmun Dhamecha Arbaaz Merchant Ismeet Singh Mohak Jaswal Gomit Chopra Nupur Sarika and Vikrant Chhokar the official saidA special holiday court had earlier remanded Aryan Khan Munmun Dhamecha and Arbaaz Merchant in the NCBs custody till MondayThe antidrugs agency had kept a close watch on the cruise ship event for 1520 days after receiving information that a drug party would be organised After confirmation the NCB conducted the raid on Saturday officials earlier saidThey had said the NCB may question officials of Delhibased event management company Namascray registered as Caneplus Trading Private Limited and officials of the cruise company Cordelia CruisesThe Delhibased firm was tasked with the management of the event onboard Cordelia Cruises Empress ship which was supposed to take place from October 2 to October 4All known organisers of the event are now under the scanner of the NCB an official of the antidrug agency earlier saidThe cruise company in a statement on Sunday said it had nothing to do with the incidentThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever