The Bombay High Court will hear on October 26 the bail plea of Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, who has been arrested in connection with the seizure of banned drugs on a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast.
The Bombay High Court will hear on October 26 the bail plea of Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, who was denied bail by a special NDPS court on Wednesday.
Khan’s counsel moved the High Court on Wednesday along with two other bail petitioners Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, seeking urgent hearing on the bail pleas after the special NDPS court refused to grant them relief on Wednesday.
The court found that Aryan Khan was indulging in “illegal drug activities on a regular basis”. The court said that his WhatsApp chat prima facie revealed that he was in touch with drug smugglers.
Aryan (23), arrested along with a few others on October 3, has now moved the Bombay High Court after the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) raided a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast and claimed to have seized drugs, including charas.
The special NDPS Act court, in its 21-page order, said that the WhatsApp chat of Aryan Khan prima facie shows that he was “dealing in illegal drug activities on a regular basis” and hence it cannot be said that he was unlikely to do so. Offense on release on bail.
It was also assumed that Aryan knew that his friend and co-accused Arbaaz Merchant was in possession of drugs, and therefore had “conscious possession”, even though the NCB itself had not found any drugs on Aryan.
“Prima facie, in view of the involvement of the applicants/accused No. 1 to 3 (Aryan Khan, Merchant and Dhamecha) in a serious and serious offence, it is not a fit case for grant of bail,” the judge said in the order.
Earlier, a magistrate’s court while rejecting the bail plea of the accused had held that only a special court can hear these cases.
Khan, Merchant and Dhamecha, along with others, were arrested on October 3 for alleged conspiracy, possession, consumption, purchase and smuggling of drugs under the NDPS Act. He is now in judicial custody. While Aryan Khan and Merchant are lodged in Arthur Road Jail, Dhamecha is lodged in the Byculla Women’s Jail in the city. So far 20 people have been arrested in this case.