After Aryan Khan’s arrest on Sunday, the Narcotics Control Bureau arrested five more persons on Tuesday in connection with the seizure of drugs from a cruise ship, The Indian Express reported.
The NCB had earlier arrested eight people, including actor Shah Rukh Khan and producer Gauri Khan’s son Aryan Khan, while raiding a rave party on Cordelia Cruises’ Empress ship, which was inaugurated just two weeks ago.
The total number of arrests in the case currently stands at 16.
Of the five persons arrested on Tuesday, four were from an event management company that had organised the party and one was a passenger (Avin Sahu) who had allegedly consumed drugs while the ship was at sea, The Indian Express report states.
Earlier, the NCB had also arrested Abdul Qadir Sheikh, Shreyas Nair, and Manish Rajgaria in connection with the same case. While Nair was detained on Monday morning, the other two were nabbed in the late hours of Monday.
Sheikh was arrested on Monday with 54.3 gm of mephedrone, which is categorised as commercial quantity, and 2.5 gm of ecstasy (intermediate quantity). Nair, meanwhile, was found in possession of 2 gm of charas, which is categorised as small quantity. Rajgaria, another guest on the cruise ship, was arrested with 2.4 gm of ganja, while no drugs were found on Sahu.
Sheikh, Nair, Darya and Sahu were produced before the court on Tuesday. After the hearing, all four were remanded to NCB custody till October 11.
As per the report, NCB counsel Advait Sethna told the court that their investigation revealed that Sahu consumed ganja twice on the ship.
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The four members of the event management company – Gopal Jee Anand, Samir Seghal, Manav Singhal and Bhaskar Arora – will be produced before the court on Wednesday, an officer told the publication. The officer also said that the four have been arrested on charges of harbouring drug users on the ship and allowing the premises to be used for consuming narcotics. They have been charged under sections 25 and 27A of the NDPS Act.
The report also states that while NCB’s investigation is on, the Mumbai Police has started its own probe into the case on Tuesday. The police say they received no written letter seeking permission for a party on the cruise ship. According to the report, officers said they will speak to DG (Shipping) and Mumbai Port Trust on whether any permission was granted for the party.
Meanwhile, Khan remains in custody till October 7.
Here’s the full timeline of the events that led up to Aryan Khan’s arrest and what followed.