Investigating officer was motivated to somehow implicate Aryan Khan: Five reasons why NCB gave clean chit to Khan

The investigating officer (IO) who probed the cruise ship drug case was somehow motivated to implicate Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan in the case though there was no evidence against him, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) told a Mumbai Court on Friday..The SIT told the Court that it will not be filing a complaint against Aryan Khan in the case, for reasons including lack of sufficient evidence to proceed against him.The central agency investigating offences under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act filed a 6,000 page primary chargesheet to that effect before the Special Court at Mumbai, implicating 14 accused and giving a clean chit to 6 remaining accused.Below are the reasons why the NCB has chosen not to proceed against Khan:No drugs recovered, investigation motivatedThe investigation, according to SIT, revealed that no drug was recovered from Khan and also that one of the accused in the case, Arbaaz Merchant, linked to Khan, had never stated that the drug in his possession was for Khan's consumption.Despite such statement, the Investigating Officer (IO) in the case continued looking for evidence to implicate Khan, which to the SIT indicated a possibility of motivated investigation.“In spite of clear cut denial by Arbaaz regarding involvement of Aryan in the procurement and possession of drugs from him, IO started looking at WhatsApp chats of Aryan without even formally seizing the mobile phone (sic). It appears IO was motivated to somehow implicate Aryan Khan in the drug case,” the chargesheet said..Relying on WhatsApp chats as primary evidence improperIn the chargesheet, SIT reasoned that reliance on WhatsApp chats as primary source of evidence to call upon witnesses and accused was improper.“Witnesses and accused were asked to join the investigation based on the contents of WhatsApp chat treating them as if contents of WhatsApp chats are primary source of evidence. The Supreme Court has time and again questioned the evidentiary value of WhatsApp chats. …our excessive reliance on WhatsApp messages will be severely counterproductive during trial of the case,” the chargesheet explained..Khan's mobile phone was not formally seizedFrom the panchnama, SIT noted that the procedure for seizing Khan’s phone had not been followed.“The mobile phone of Khan was voluntarily handed over by him to the Investigating officer. …such handing over was not followed by formal seizure procedure as laid down in the law. …integrity of data extracted from the Aryan's phone is questionable as there is no seizure memo for the phone to show how and when his phone was seized," the SIT highlighted. .No mobile chats were recovered connecting Khan to caseThe chargesheet also said that the chats recovered from mobile phone did not connect Khan to the case. .No evidence The SIT concluded that there is no evidence to prove Khan’s role or his involvement in the conspiracy. Courts are lenient when there is no cogent evidence and when there is no recovery of drugs from accused, the SIT submitted..The SIT also took into consideration the affidavit of Prabhakar Sail, bodyguard of independent witness KP Gosavi which stated that NCB had made him sign a blank panchnama..The chargesheet was lodged with the registry of the court on Friday. The Special Court is likely to take cognizance of the same in the coming week.