Drugs case: Aryan Khan to stay in jail till Oct 20, court reserves order on bail

Aryan Khan son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan was a regular consumer of drugs the NCB on Thursday told a special NDPS court here while opposing his bail plea in a case of alleged seizure of banned drugs from a cruise shipAryan 23 arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau NCB on October 3 will have to remain in jail for at least six more days as the court after hearing arguments posted the matter for orders on October 20Khan and two others Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha have sought bail from the court of V V Patil special judge for cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances ActAppearing for the NCB Additional Solicitor General ASG Anil Singh claimed that there was evidence to show that Aryan Khan was a regular consumer of drugs for the last few yearsHe also reiterated the charge of conspiracy against Aryan based on his WhatsApp chatsSince his arrest the NCB has maintained that though nothing was recovered from him personally Aryans WhatsApp chats revealed his links with drug peddlersThe ASG further contended that drugs were seized from Merchant at the docks and they were meant for consumption by both Aryan and himAlso read Cruise ship drug case Aryan Khan 5 others shifted to Arthur Road Jails common cellThe NCB has also been claiming that Aryan was in contact with members of an international drug racketThe NCB was in touch with the External Affairs Ministry to identify them the ASG saidSingh also cited a high court ruling in another case that if an accused is shown to be in touch with drug dealers bail cannot be granted even though there is no drug recoveryDrug abuse is affecting youngsters and being collegegoing boys should not be a consideration for bail the NCB lawyer said adding that the future of the country depends on this generationThis is not what our freedomfighters had in mind This is the land of Mahatma Gandhi and Buddha The investigation is at preliminary stage this is not the stage for grant of bail he addedSenior Advocate Amit Desai representing Aryan Khan said the NCB was pointing to international trafficking racket but if the consumer states from where he procured drugs then the chain is completeThe NCB itself had alleged that Aryan disclosed the name of Achit Kumar another arrested accused he said The agency can continue the probe but the allegation of links to international racket against Aryan is inherently absurd and false he saidI dont think there can be a debate that the entire world is fighting the drug menace We got our freedom and we must protect it and save the younger generation from the drug menace the lawyer saidOn Aryans WhatsApp chats Desai said todays youth have different ways of expressing themselves which might be a torture for the older generationThe language could seem like something different than what ought to be expected in a court of law and might lead to suspicion advocate Desai saidThese are private moments which are being investigated You can go ahead and investigateBut it has nothing to do with illicit behaviour illicit drug trafficking he addedAryan Khan had lived abroad for some time and lot of things are legitimate in other countries the lawyer addedEarlier Aryan Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha who were among those arrested by the NCB on October 3 had been denied bail by a magistrates court which said it can not hear the pleas in a case triable by a special NDPS courtWhile Aryan and Merchant are lodged at Arthur Road jail Dhamecha is at Byculla womens prison in the cityBased on a tipoff that a rave party was scheduled on the ship off the Mumbai coast an NCB team led by its zonal director Sameer Wankhede raided the Goabound Cordelia cruise on October 2 evening and allegedly seized drugsThis 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