No Evidence. Aryan Khan was Part of Larger Narcotics Conspiracy
After months of investigation by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), it has been concluded that Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan’s son Aryan Khan was not a part of a “larger drugs conspiracy”.
The SIT has stated, “no evidence that Aryan Khan was part of a larger drugs conspiracy or an international drugs trafficking syndicate”.
Aryan was arrested on October 3, 2021. Along with Aryan, his friends- Arbaaz Merchant & Munmun Dhamecha and 17 others were also arrested. According to the reports, SIT pointed out that they found several irregularities in the raid during their investigation on the yacht Cordelia.
The Bombay High Court also had confirmed a similar statement in its bail order. The Court had also confirmed nothing offensive was found in the WhatsApp chats of Aryan, Munmun Dhamecha, and Arbaaz Merchant, who were also arrested, among several others, who were also arrested back in October.
The SIT’s key findings include Shah Rukh Khan’s son not owning any drugs. According to the information, Aryan Khan’s chat did not specify any international narcotics syndicate. Hence, he was not supposed to surrender his phone, and there was no need to check his chats.
Despite no evidence against Aryan, The SIT probe is not complete, and it could take a couple of months before the unit submits its final report to NCB Director General S N Pradhan.
But a legal opinion will be brought before the final decision, “particularly on the aspect whether Khan can be charged for consumption even though Aryan was not carrying any drugs,” said one of the officers.
The raid was not video recorded as mandated by the NCB manual, and As per the NCB manual, raids should be recorded on video. Another key finding was the narcotics substance recovered from several arrested in the case was shown as single recovery.
Last year, the Bombay high court dismissed NCB’s assertion that Aryan Khan and the other suspects in the cruise ship narcotics bust plotted to conduct crimes involving commercial amounts of drugs. In his ruling, Justice Nitin W Sambre, a single-judge bench, stated: “no evidence to suggest the existence of any conspiracy.”
Aryan was arrested on October 2 in connection with a drugs raid on a cruise off the Mumbai coast accompanied by the Narcotics Control Bureau. The NCB’s Mumbai unit raided a cruise ship off the city coast, Helmed by zonal director Sameer Wankhede.
On October 28, the High Court of Bombay granted him bail. After several court hearings and 26 long days in custody. Finally, on October 30, he walked out of jail.
Edited By- Kiran Maharana
Published By- Pawan Rajput
