Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, who has been in custody since October 3 after being arrested in the Mumbai drugs bust case, will have to spend another night in jail as the Bombay High Court, which is hearing his bail application after it was rejected by a lower court, adjourned the matter till 2:30 pm on Wednesday. However, in a huge shot in the arm for Aryan’s legal team, two other accused in the drugs seizure case – Manish Rajgaria and Avin Sahu – were granted bail on Tuesday by the Sessions court.
Both Rajgaria and Sahu were patrons on the cruise. While Rajgaria is accused of possessing 2.4 gms of ganja, Sahu reportedly confessed that he consumed contraband twice onboard the ship.
They were arrested after the cruise ship returned on October 4, and were booked for consumption, possession and conspiracy under section 29.
Aryan’s defence team now plans to use this to bolster their case on Wednesday.
“In my view, this is advantageous to us. We will rely on the order to convince the Bombay High Court. Since in this case, which is on par with us, bail has been granted, we should also be granted bail on grounds of parity,” senior lawyer Taraq Sayed, who is representing Arbaaz Merchant, told CNN-News18.
“The lower court had denied us bail while observing that there was a chain (of conspiracy). Now, this order shows that there is a break in the chain. So, we will ask the court to take a view of this order,” he said.
Aryan was arrested on October 3 along with his friend Arbaaz Merchant and model Munmun Dhamecha by the NCB, along with others. While Aryan and Merchant are now lodged at the Arthur Road jail, Dhamecha is at the Byculla Women’s Prison. A special court for NDPS cases had refused to grant them bail, noting that they were, on the face of it, part of a conspiracy and Aryan apparently had a nexus with drug peddlers and indulged in “illicit drug activities on a regular basis”. Earlier in the day, the NCB opposed Aryan’s bail plea in an affidavit filed before the HC, alleging that he was not just a consumer of drugs, but also involved in illicit drug trafficking.
On Tuesday, Aryan’s lawyers Mukul Rohatgi and Satish Maneshinde argued before Justice N W Sambre that the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had no evidence against him. “Aryan has no complaints whatsoever against any officer of the NCB including its zonal director Sameer Wankhede. Aryan is not concerned with these unsavoury controversies. He completely denies any relation to this,” senior counsel Rohatgi also told the court.
“There is no evidence of consumption, no recovery of drugs and absolutely no evidence to show his participation in this so-called conspiracy and abetment as alleged by the NCB,” Rohatgi said.
During his argument, Rohatgi also pointed out that Aryan was not subjected to any medical examination to show that he had indeed consumed drugs.
After Rohatgi completed his arguments, the high court said it would continue hearing on the bail pleas of co-accused Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha on Wednesday. The court will also hear the arguments of Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, the NCB’s lawyer on Wednesday.
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