The Bombay High Court on Saturday released the detailed 14-page bail order of Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, his friends Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha who was arrested on October 2 following a raid conducted by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on a Mumbai cruise.
In the order, the Bombay HC noted that Aryan Khan was “not found in possession of any objectionable substance” and that no evidence of conspiracy was found between Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, the other accused in the case.
According to the court, a review of WhatsApp chats taken from Aryan Khan’s phone reveals that nothing objectionable was found to suggest that he, Merchant, and Dhamecha, along with other accused, plotted to commit the crime in question.
“After having gone through the WhatsApp chats extracted from Applicant/Accused no. 1’s [Aryan Khan] phone, nothing objectionable could be noticed to suggest that applicant nos. 1 & 2 [Arbaaz and Munmun Dhamecha] or all three applicants along with other accused persons in the agreement have a meeting of minds and have hatched conspiracy committing the offence in question,” the court order read.
We had reported earlier on how Anil Singh, representing NCB, referred to a sensitive Whatsapp chat of Aryan Khan and hinted at the involvement of foreign nationals regarding bulk procurement of hard drugs.
Merely because Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha were travelling in the same cruise, that by itself cannot be a foundation for the charge of conspiracy against them : Bombay High Court.#NCB #NDPS #AryanKhanBail #SameerWankhede
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) November 20, 2021
Merely because Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant, and Munmun Dhamecha were travelling in the same cruise, that by itself cannot be a foundation for the charge of conspiracy against them,” the court said explaining the rationale behind granting bail to Khan and others.
Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha were not even subjected to medical examination so as to determine whether, at the relevant time, they had consumed drugs, observed Bombay High Court in the bail order.
Regarding NCB’s argument that the accused had admitted committing the crime, the Bombay HC observed that the agency cannot rely on the alleged confessional statements recorded by the investigating officer as it is not binding. “However, in view of submissions made by Mr Singh, [NCB’s lawyer] it is worth to clarify here that such confessional statements can be considered by the investigating agency only for the investigation purpose and cannot be used as a tool for drawing an inference that applicants have committed an offence under the NDPS Act as has been alleged against them,” said the court.
“…it is difficult to infer that applicants are involved in an offence of commercial quantity [of drugs]. As such, parameters laid down under Section 37 of the NDPS act will be of hardly any consequence while considering the prayer for grant of bail of the applicants,” Justice Nitin Sambre concluded a saying.
Aryan Khan arrested in the drug bust case
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) apprehended Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, on October 2, 2021, after raiding a cruise ship en route to Goa from Mumbai.
He was arrested for violating the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act’s Sections 8(c), 20(b), 27, 28, 29, and 35 after NCB alleged that it has seized 13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams of mephedrone MD, 21 gram charas and 22 pills of MDMA ecstasy.
Aryan Khan’s bail was delayed as Mumbai’s Special NDPS Court had on Wednesday, October 20 rejected his bail plea in connection with the high-profile Mumbai Cruise drug bust case.
On the same day NDPS Court rejected Aryan Khan’s bail plea, his lawyers moved Bombay High Court seeking an urgent hearing in the case. The court, in turn, had agreed to hear the case on October 26.
A battery of India’s top lawyers including former attorney general for India Mukul Rohatgi, Karanjawala & Co. team and eminent lawyer Satish Maneshinde and his team had steered the bail proceedings in the Bombay HC on October 28. Finally, Bombay HC granted bail, however, imposing 14 stringent bail conditions on him.
