A Mumbai court, on Friday, rejected the bail application of Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan and producer Gauri Khan, in the case related to the seizure of drugs on board a cruise ship, Live Law reported.
On Thursday, the court had sent Khan and seven others, namely Arbaz Seth Merchant, Munmun Dhamecha, Vikrant Chhoker, Ismeet Singh, Nupur Sarika, Gomit Chopra, and Mohak Jaswal, to judicial custody for 14 days.
Immediately after this, Khan’s lawyer, Satish Maneshinde, had filed his bail application citing that no drugs were found in Khan’s possession and there was no evidence against him in the alleged “incriminating” WhatsApp chats.
The Additional Solicitor General argued that granting bail could hamper the investigation and potentially lead to the accused tampering with evidence. “Here is a case where there is an involvement of 17 persons. Their connections, involvement, etc, are there and the investigation is at a preliminary stage. There will be interfering with witnesses [in case bail is granted]. They are influential persons. There is a chance of tampering with evidence. Had it been one person found with a small quantity, it would be different. We have got a lot of material during the investigation. Protection like bail, at this stage, will hamper the investigation,” the ASG said.
Khan, Dhamecha, and Merchant had applied for interim bail, which was rejected by the court on Friday after a lengthy hearing.
All eight accused are currently in Arthur Road jail. Khan’s lawyer will now have to approach the Sessions Court for bail on Monday.
Recommended
Khan was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Sunday at around 2 pm after being interrogated over a rave party on a cruise ship. The agency raided the party on Saturday night based on a tip-off.
As of Wednesday, 18 arrests have been made by the NCB in this case. The most recent one was that of a Nigerian national who allegedly supplied drugs at the party.
Here’s the full timeline of the events that led up to Aryan Khan’s arrest and what followed.