Bollywood celebs and netizens have taken to social media voicing their anger over an Indian court’s decision to reject the bail plea of Aryan Khan, the son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan. He has been under arrest and put behind bars since 8 October in a drugs-on-cruise case.
Aryan, his friend Arbaaz Merchant, and model Munmun Dhamecha, along with five others were detained after the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) raided a rave party on a cruise ship off Mumbai on 2 October.
The case was being heard at Mumbai's special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court.
Aryan's lawyers, Satish Maneshinde and Amit Desai, argued in the court that no drugs were found on him.
However, the NCB claimed that they have strong evidence from Aryan's WhatsApp chats about his links with an international cartel and that he had sourced drugs for years.
After Aryan’s bail plea was rejected on Wednesday, some celebrities and netizens took to social media, calling the move absolute harassment and gross injustice.
Some of them suggested Aryan and his family should immediately approach the High Court over the perceived travesty of justice, while many pointed to previous cases where bail was granted and said that there appears to be two laws for two different people.
Aryan's bail plea has been rejected several times by the court, which has led to social media uproar.
Several celebrities, such as film director Hansal Mehta, Rahul Dholakia, actress Swara Bhasker, Tanishaa Mukerji, and many others condemned the court order on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Aryan Khan moved the Bombay High Court on Wednesday after the rejection of his bail request. Although his plea could not be mentioned before the single-judge bench of Justice Nitin W. Sambre due to a paucity of time, it may be mentioned and heard on Thursday at 10.30 a.m, the Indian Express reported.
Flashback to the Case
After getting a tip-off about the cruise rave party, the NCB raided it on 2 October and arrested Aryan and his friends Arbaaz Merchant, Munmun Dhamecha, Nupur Sarika, Ismeet Singh, Mohak Jaswal, Vikrant Chhoker, and Gomit Chopra.
Although his lawyer Maneshinde claimed that Aryan had simply been invited to the event by the party organisers, and no drugs were recovered from him, the NCB chief said there was evidence to prove the contrary.
So far, the NCB has arrested 18 people, including Aryan, since the raid on the ship.