Additional Solicitor General of India, Anil C. Singh has told the Special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court in Mumbai that the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has sought the help of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to probe the alleged international connection of Aryan Khan with foreign drug peddlers.
Anil Singh who is representing NCB referred to a sensitive Whatsapp chat of Aryan Khan with foreign nationals regarding bulk procurement of hard drugs. He opposed his bail petition and said that it was misconceived at this stage. While the investigation was still going on, NCB feared the accused may influence the probe if released on bail at this stage.
Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan is among the 20 accused arrested on October 2 by NCB in the Cordelia cruise drug bust case. Anil Singh, who is representing NCB, said that from the WhatsApp of Aryan Khan, the NCB has found many incriminating pieces of evidence indicating his international links of drugs procurement.
“There is a Whatsapp chat of Aryan with a foreign national. There is a specific referring of bulk quantity of hard drugs. We have approached the MEA to find out ways to reach the foreign national,” Anil Singh told the court.
While the NCB has said that the hard drugs in bulk can’t be for personal consumption Anil Singh further said that there is an exchange of foreign transactions with refers to hard drugs. These sensitive chats have evidential values that NCB didn’t want to reveal in the open court. “But if see minutely, it will be known why the investigation is important and releasing these accused will influence the probe in the case,” Anil Singh said.
Amit Desai appearing on behalf of Aryan khan said that chats could be youthful banter, friendly gossip and joke. He said that Whatsapp chats are not admissible in evidence. He tried to dismiss NCB’s contention of WhatsApp chat by saying that youngsters of the modern days have a different way of communicate which can be understood only in the context of the chats. He said that youngsters communicate in English and not in Queen’s English.
He argued that conversations on chats can often be misunderstood. “We need to see, is this youthful banter, friendly gossip joke? Is someone trying to tell him I got this, I did this, were they trying joke laugh about it?” he said.
Anil Singh told the court that a commercial quantity of drugs recovered from other accused hence under section 37 of NDPS, the fetter of bail will apply on them.
The court has reserved the order for October 20.
