The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) gave Aryan Khan, a clean chit on May 27. He was arrested in connection with the Mumbai cruise narcotics case in October last year. The investigation agency stated that it was unable to obtain enough evidence against Aryan. As a result, Aryan is not mentioned in the agency’s charge sheet.
NCB’s second investigation team (SIT) that is filing the charge sheet stated that why the agency dropped charges against Aryan Khan because:
- During the investigation, there’s no confirmation that Aryan was involved in a drugs conspiracy in the cruise party.
- NCB says he was not linked to any international drug trafficking ring.
- The NCB SIT investigating the case discovered a number of irregularities during the raid on the Cordelia trip, during which Aryan was apprehended.Â
- Aryan is not addicted to any drugs.Â
- According to the SIT, there was no need to take Aryan’s phone during the raids, as the original inquiry team did.
- The drugs seized from numerous defendants in the case were reported as a single recovery, contrary to the NDPS manual.
The following is a timeline of the Aryan case:
- On the night of Aryan’s arrest, Kiran Gosavi, allegedly a private detective and an independent witness for the NCB, was spotted in a viral selfie with him while in the agency’s custody. Gosavi would later be arrested in a cheating case a few weeks later.
- During the bail hearings, the NCB claimed that Aryan Khan was a habitual drug user, that he “engaged in drug smuggling,” that he was involved in “drug procurement and distribution,” and that the case involved an international network.
- In a complaint to the Bombay High Court, the agency also claimed that Shah Rukh Khan’s manager Pooja Dadlani “looked to have swayed” a witness.
- WhatsApp chats between Aryan and actor Ananya Panday were leaked to the media, in which the two allegedly discussing about drugs. The NCB was rebuked by the court for relying on fictitious WhatsApp chats to support its case.
- Former NCB officer Sameer Wankhede, who was initially in charge of the inquiry, became involved in a series of controversies, as a result of irregularities and failures in the investigation. He was accused of misconduct and forgery, which he disputed, and he was eventually removed from the case.
- In November, the investigation was shifted from the Mumbai-based team to a Special Investigation Team from Delhi led by Sanjay Kumar Singh, amidst the controversy.
- Prabhakar Sail, a crucial witness in the case, died of a heart attack in April after making dramatic accusations about a conspiracy inside the NCB to arrest Shah Rukh Khan’s kid and a $25 million pay-off.
- The NCB submitted its 6,000-page chargesheet on Tuesday without mentioning Aryan.
