Aryan Khan drug case: Co-accused Mohak Jaswal gets bail

Mohak Jaswal, co-accused in the cruise ship ship drug case in which Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan is the prime accused, has been granted bail by Mumbai court.

. The order of bail by the special court under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act) is the 15th bail in the case.

. Jaswal was one of the first accused in the case to be charged under Section 27A of NDPS Act for offence of trafficking.

He was alleged to be a drug supplier as he had intermediate quantity of ecstasy pills of MDMA which he had supplied to two co-accused.

. At least 15 of the 20 accused have secured bail in the case including Aryan Khan who was granted bail by Bombay High Court on October 28.

. Jaswal's bail application stated that he was arrested for contravention of Sections 8(c), 22(b), 27, 27A, 28 and 29 of the NDPS Act on the basis of statement given by co-accused Nupur Satija. There was no contraband recovered from him.

. Advocate Lakshmi Raman appearing for Jaswal submitted that if the entire case of the Narcotics Control Bureau is taken as "gospel truth" then Jaswal is alleged to have committed the offence of facilitation the procurement of intermediary quantity of ecstasy pills for the co-accused.

She argued that there was no material on record to show that Jaswal had committed any offence involving commercial quantity of contraband. Hence the crucial element for invoking rigours under Section 37 of the NDPS Act in respect of commercial quantity is missing and hence the rigours cannot be applied to him.

. NCB vehemently opposed the plea stating that he had supplied drugs to two consumers, Satija and Gomit Chopra. After their interrogation with Jaswal, they intercepted Abdul Qadir Shaikh who is a bigger peddler.

According to NCB, Shaikh got the drugs for Jaswal and Jaswal sold it to the other two consumers.

Their investigation revealed that the two Nigerians had supplied drugs to Shaikh who had allegedly been arrested with commercial quantity of drugs.

. NCB stated that they had reasonable grounds to believe that Jaswal was guilty of the alleged offences committed by him and that the rigours of Section 37 were applicable to Sections 27A, 28 and 29 of the NDPS Act.

NCB further stated that considering the prima facie involvement of Jaswal in commission of grave and serious offence. This is not a fit case for granting bail considering the gravity of the offences.

He said there was a possibility of the offences being committed again after Jaswal is enlarged on bail. There was a possibility that Jaswal may tamper with the evidence and influence witnesses.

"Hence to maintain sanctity of the investigation and a prima facie case being made out against Jaswal, even on this ground there is no case made out for his enlargement on bail." NCB argued.

. After hearing arguments of both parties, the Special NDPS Judge granted bail to Jaswal upon furnishing bail bond of ₹ 50,000/- with one or more sureties.

Aryan Khan drug case: Co-accused Mohak Jaswal gets bail

Neha Joshi

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