Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan heaved a huge sigh of relief on Friday as the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) gave him a “clean chit” in the much-discussed mid-sea drug bust case, citing “lack of sufficient evidence” against him.
Apart from Aryan, the NCB also spared five others — Avin Sahu, Gopal Anand, Samir Saighan, Bhaskar Aroda and Manav Singhal — of prosecution in the October 3, 2021 drug bust.
In effect, the NCB did not name Aryan and five others in the charge-sheet before a special court in the drug bust case on Friday.
However, the NCB filed a 6,000-page charge-sheet in the special court against 14 others, including Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, in the case, before the expiry of the extended deadline for filing of the charge-sheet in the case.
The Special Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act court had on March 31 granted 60 days’ extension to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to file a charge-sheet in the much-discussed drug-bust case in which Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan and others are accused.
Hours after the charge-sheet against 14 persons, NCB Director General SN Pradhan said his organisation had applied “the touchstone of the principle of proof beyond reasonable doubt” while filing the charge-sheet in the case.
“All accused were found in possession of narcotics except Aryan (Khan) and Mohak (Jaiswal). The touchstone of the principle of proof beyond reasonable doubt has been applied. Based on which a complaint has been filed against 14 accused and a complaint against six (including Aryan Khan) is not filed due to lack of sufficient evidence,” Pradhan said in a statement released to media.
The 14 persons who have been charge-sheeted in the case are: Arbaaz Merchant, Munmun Dhamecha, Vikrant Chhokar, Mohak Jaiswal, Ishmeet Singh Chadha, Gomit Chopra, Nupur Satija, Abdul Kadar Shaikh, Shreyas Nair, Manish Rajgariya, Aachit Kumar, Chinedu Igwe, Shivraj Harijan and Okoro Uzeoma.
IRS officer Sameer Wankhede, then NCB’s Mumbai Zonal Director, who led the investigations in the case and is now attached to Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, refused to comment on the anti-drug agency’s decision to drop charges against Aryan and five others.
It may be recalled that the NCB had arrested Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant, Munmun Dhamecha and five others on October 3, after its officials busted a rave party and seized 13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams of MD (Mephedrone), 21 grams of Charas, 22 pills of MDMA (Ecstasy) and Rs 1.33 lakh in cash from Goa-bound Cordelia Cruises' Empress ship, off the Mumbai coast. Subsequently, the NCB arrested 12 more persons in connection with the mid-sea rave party
The permanent relief to Aryan in the sensational case came seven months after the Bombay High Court on October 28, 2021 granted bail to him and two others, 25 days after they were arrested in the sensational case.
Later on November 20, 2021, in what came as a slap on the face of the NCB, the Bombay High Court had rejected outright its allegation that Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan and two other accused were part of the conspiracy in the case and disallowed its effort to use their “confessional statements as a tool” to infer that they had committed offences under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Giving his reasoning for granting bail to Aryan Khan, Arbaaz and Munmun in the mid-sea drug bust case on October 28, a single-member HC bench of Justice Nitin W Sambre had noted in his detailed order released on November 20 2021: “... there is no material on record to infer that applicants (Aryan and two others) have hatched conspiracy to commit the offence. That being so, at this stage, it is difficult to infer that the applicants are involved in an offence of commercial quantity. As such, parameters laid down under section 37 of the NDPS Act will hardly be of any consequence while considering the prayer for grant of bail”.
Raising serious manner in which the NCB investigated the case, the judge slammed the investigating agency for not subjecting to medical examination “so as to determine whether at the relevant time, they had consumed drugs” and made mince meat of the investigators’ claim that they had found incriminating whatsapp chat from Aryan’s phone, by observing that “nothing objectionable could be noticed to suggest that he and two other accused had hatched a conspiracy.
The judge noted that going by the material brought on record before it, “this Court has prima facie not notice any positive evidence against the applicants”. “This court is of the opinion that the claim put forth by the respondent that the applicants should be considered to have the common intention to commit an offence under the NDPS Act, having been found in possession of commercial quantity. In the backdrop of a case of hatching conspiracy is liable to be rejected”.
Observing that Aryan was not found in possession of any objectionable substance, the judge had tore into the NCB’s allegation that Aryan and two other accused were part of the conspiracy
“For inferring act of hatching conspiracy on the part of Aryan and two other accused, there has to be positive evidence about an agreement to do a unlawful act or to do a lawful act by unlawful means and such agreement must precede meeting of minds... There is hardly any positive evidence to convince this court that all the accused persons with common intention agreed to commit unlawful acts,” the Judge had said.
