Aryan Khan's Bail Plea Adjourned: Key Points His Lawyers Have Argued Before Bombay High Court
17:09 GMT 27.10.2021 (Updated: 10:40 GMT 19.07.2022)
© AP Photo / Rajanish Kakade
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Bollywood has lately been embroiled in a drug scandal after India's Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) arrested Aryan Khan, the 23-year-old son of superstar Shah Rukh Khan, and his friends. They were detained on 3 October for allegedly "possessing and consuming drugs" at a rave party on a cruise ship off the coast of Mumbai.
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son, Aryan Khan, and his friends accused in the cruise ship drug case did not get bail on Wednesday, as Bombay High Court adjourned the hearing for tomorrow.
On the second day of the hearing of the bail plea at Bombay High Court, former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi along with Amit Desai and Ali Kashif Khan Deshmukh, the advocates of the accused - Aryan Khan and his friends Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, concluded their arguments before Justice Nitin Sambre.
The three advocates made some strong key arguments in the bail plea of the three accused.
Former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi argued on Tuesday that Aryan was “wrongfully detained” and told the court there was "no consumption, no possession" of drugs.
He further pointed out that “no medical test was done”, and hence, there is nothing on record to show that he had consumed drugs.
#AryanKhanCase : Bombay High Court will continue hearing the bail applications of #AryanKhan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha in the drugs-on-cruise case today.
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) October 27, 2021
The cases are listed as item numbers 37, 38 and 39.
Follow this thread for live-updates from the hearing. pic.twitter.com/VQXwkmrDwy
Before the Bombay High Court, Aryan’s bail plea was denied several times by a special anti-drugs court on grounds that he knew about contraband hidden in his friend Arbaaz Merchant's shoe, and this amounted to "conscious possession".
During the raid, the NCB seized six grams of charas (contraband drug) from Aryan’s friend Arbaaz Merchant's shoe.
Rubbishing the NCB’s claims, Rohatgi told the court on behalf of Aryan, "My case is that there is no conscious possession at all. What somebody else had in their shoe is not my concern. That cannot be my conscious possession".
He also argued that cases involving such a small quantity of drugs call for rehab rather than jail.
“No possession, no consumption, no recovery of drugs from Aryan Khan, then why is he sent to jail for 20 days?” Rohatgi questioned.
On Wednesday, advocate Desai, appearing on behalf of Arbaaz Merchant, told the judge that the court had been misled during the first remand into believing that it's a “conspiracy” case of an international drug “nexus”. He argued that their arrest is illegal.
Advocate Rohatgi also pointed out that the arrest memo didn’t give “true and correct” grounds for their detention.
Advocate Deshmukh, representing accused Munmum Dhamecha, told the court that the case against her is "bogus", as she had no connection with the seizure made during the raid and she never consumed any drugs.
Deshmukh also argued that Dhamecha was in a room with two other people - Somiya and Baldev - during the NCB raid. She alleged that the rolling paper was found on Somiya during the personal search, while nothing was recovered from her. However, the NCB allowed Somiya and Baldev to go.
“But Somiya and Baldev were allowed to go…NCB has failed to prove who brought the drugs which are being foisted on me. And if they can't find where it came from, then all 1,300 people [on the cruise] should be arrested in the case", Deshmukh argued.
The advocates also argued that there are no WhatsApp chats that indicate conspiracy related to the rave party.
Meanwhile, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh will reply on behalf of the Narcotics Control Bureau on Thursday.
The Raid
After getting a tip-off about the cruise rave party, the NCB conducted a raid on 2 October and arrested Aryan and his friends Arbaaz Merchant, Munmun Dhamecha, Nupur Sarika, Ishmeet Singh, Mohak Jaswal, Vikrant Chhokar, and Gomit Chopra.
They were held on 3 October for allegedly possessing and consuming drugs on a cruise ship off the coast of Mumbai.
Although Aryan's lawyer claimed that he had simply been invited to the event by the party organisers and that no drugs were recovered from him, NCB officer Sameer Wankhede said there was evidence to the contrary.
So far, the NCB has arrested as many as 20 people, including Aryan, since the raid on the ship.
Aryan and the other defendants have been in jail since 8 October and are waiting to be granted bail by an Indian court.
On the other hand, Sameer Wankhede, the NCB officer investigating the case, has been accused of extortion, fraud, and framing Aryan Khan and others by Maharashtra State Minister Nawab Malik.
Meanwhile, a special team of NCB officers from New Delhi has arrived in Mumbai to investigate allegations against Sameer Wankhede and the drug raid carried out at the beginning of October.
