Mumbai: Aryan Khan, son of megastar Shah Rukh Khan, arrested in a case involving a rave party on a cruise ship, will no longer be in the custody of the drug control agency but will be placed in prison, said a Mumbai court mentioned. Similar orders were given for the other seven defendants, including his friend Arbaaz Merchant. “I am of the opinion that no interrogation in detention is required because sufficient time has been granted,” said the judge. Within minutes, Aryan Khan’s lawyer filed for bail, which will be heard tomorrow.
The 23-year-old and the other accused will however spend the night in the offices of the drug control agency since the transfer hours for the prison are over and the mandatory Covid test is not done.
Shah Rukh and Gauri Khan were not present in court. But now they will be able to meet him – the court has allowed family visits to the agency’s offices.
Aryan Khan was arrested on Saturday after a raid on a cruise ship going from Mumbai to Goa. A total of 16 people have been arrested so far, including those who helped organize the event.
Although no drugs were found on him, the Narcotics Control Bureau – while asking for an extension of his custody which ends today – had argued that its discussions on WhatsApp suggested the involvement of international drug cartels and required further examination.
Aryan Khan is also to be confronted with a few men who have been arrested, the agency argued in court, referring to Archit Kumar, who they say was arrested on the basis of Aryan Khan’s statement yesterday.
“We cannot discuss what took the investigative team so long to arrest the defendants they are facing,” the court said.
The agency had said Archit Kumar was the person supplying it with drugs and in the WhatsApp discussions between Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant, and Munmun Dhamecha, payment for the drugs was discussed.
“The custody of an accused without a compelling reason would amount to a violation of fundamental rights,” said the court, adding that the accused could not be taken into custody by the investigative agency for “reasons waves “.
Aryan Khan’s lawyer Satish Manshinde had argued that no drugs were found on him and that he could not be held responsible for seizures made on others. But Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh had argued that the case “must be considered in its entirety.”
Aryan Khan also claimed that there was nothing incriminating in his WhatsApp chats. One of his conversations with Archit Kumar was about football, he said.
Regarding the extension of custody to confront Aryan Khan with Archit Kumar, Mr. Manshinde said: “Archit is the only one – they could have confronted me today. Persons placed in judicial detention may also be confronted if necessary. They didn’t confront me for two nights. Nothing has been done for me “.
To this, the agency responded that the arrest was made yesterday, drawing the admonition from the court.
<—-ALSO READ—->
Raid On Cruise Ship ‘Fake’, No Drugs Were Found: NCP
