The bail hearing of Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan and producer Gauri Khan, who was arrested in the cruise ship drug bust case, was adjourned to Wednesday by the Bombay High Court, Live Law reported.
Khan had moved the High Court after his bail plea was rejected by a Special NDPS court on October 20. Along with his bail applications, the applications of two other accused in the case, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, will also be heard on Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 pm.
In Tuesday’s arguments, former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, who was appearing for Khan, argued that he is a “young man” who should be sent to rehab rather than jail. Rohatgi further argued that no drug recovery has been made from Khan, and no medical tests have shown that he consumed drugs. “There was no occasion to arrest my client (Aryan Khan),” Rohatgi told the HC.
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23-year-old Khan was arrested on October 3 by the NCB during a cruise ship drug raid based on a tip-off. The agency allegedly seized 13 gm of cocaine, 21 gm of charas or hashish, 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy), 5 gm mephedrone, and cash worth Rs 1.33 lakh, and Khan was taken into NCB custody, along with a few others, including his friend Arbaaz Merchant and Dhamecha.
One of the main arguments of the NCB, in this case, has been that “incriminating” WhatsApp chats were found on Khan’s phone which also indicates international links. Talking about these chats, Rohatgi said that the ones recovered by NCB were not related to the cruise.
“None of those chats have anything to do with the onset of this saga or…conspiracy if you want to call it that. The chats will have to be tested at the time of trial. But to use a general phrase of conspiracy, there is nothing.”
He also pointed out that while consumption charges have been put on Khan, he was arrested before he even entered the cruise. “Now if there are a group of friends who plan to smoke up there is a meeting of minds. But the plan here was aborted. They were arrested before. The penalty is of consumption,” he said.
Arguing that Khan was not in “conscious possession” of any drugs including the the contraband recovered from Merchant’s shoe, Rohatgi told the court, “If I am driving the car and something is in the car, there could be conscious possession. My case is that there is no conscious possession at all. What somebody else had in their shoe is not my concern. That cannot be my “conscious possession”.”
He has also said that Khan has nothing to do with the controversy around the NCB’s Sameer Wankhede and the allegations against the latter by NCP’s Nawak Malik and a witness in the cruise case, Prabhakar Sail.
Opposing Khan’s bail the NCB’s reply alleged that Shah Rukh Khan’s manager “influenced” a witness. They also claimed that Khan’s international links show that he is not a mere consumer as claimed, but that prima facie point towards “illegal drug procurements.”
Meanwhile, a Special NDPS court on Tuesday granted bail to Manish Rajgaria and Avin Sahu, who were guests on the cruise . They are the first accused to be granted bail in the case, Live Law reported.