Aachit Kumar supplied drugs to Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant: NCB to Mumbai Court

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) told a Mumbai court on Friday that Aachit Kumar, one of the co-accused in the cruise ship drug case was supplying drugs to Aryan Khan, prime accused in the case, and to another co-accused Arbaaz Merchant..The argument was made during the hearing of the bail application filed by Kumar. .Kumar sought bail on the grounds of illegal detention and a fabricated panchnama. He claimed that no illegal substance was found on him.His lawyer advocate Ashwin Thool argued that calling the 22-year-old boy a "peddler" without any evidence has had massive ramifications on him. .In his response to Thool's arguments, Special Public Prosecutor Advait Sethna submitted that the investigation revealed that Kumar used to possess contraband in quantities higher than for personal consumption. He was also responsible for distributing the same to Khan and Merchant. ."Investigation has revealed that he (Kumar) was in the use of contraband which is something other than personal consumption. Burden is on him to show that it is for personal consumption which he has not done at all," Sethna argued. Sethna added that "it is the case of use of 2.6 grams supplied to accused no. 1 (Khan) and no. 2 (Merchant) whose bail has been rejected by this court. So there is no issue in using nomenclature 'peddler' to describe him". .Kumar was arrested by the NCB on October 6, 2021 after an alleged 2.6 grams of ganja was recovered from him. He had approached the Sessions Court seeking bail on Thursday last week. NCB claimed that Kumar was part of the ganja trafficking network.The Bureau claimed that Kumar was intercepted only after Khan and Merchant had taken his name in their voluntary statement which they later retracted..The prosecutor claimed that there was corroborative material which linked Khan with Kumar and the sessions court had rejected Khan's bail plea on Wednesday. Relying upon the material that was submitted to the Court for its perusal during Khan's bail arguments, Sethna stated that whether the conversations brought on record prove guilt or not are a matter of trial, but ought to be treated as corroborative evidence at the stage of bail. ."It cannot be a mere coincidence that you are expressing yourself in a particular manner when contraband, bulk quantity of drugs is involved. There are certain conversation which have been brought on record, but whether they can prove guilt or innocence is a matter of trial but it is corroborative material at this stage. And these chains of conversations cannot be brushed aside as banter in my respectful submission," Sethna added..Substantiating the allegation of conspiracy arraigned in the FIR against the accused, Sethna argued, "In a conspiracy when there are different people forming a chain, at a prima facie stage, would the agency be able to identify what is the role of every conspirator? It is impossible to say now as to who is on a better footing. The segregation of roles will lead to chaos and injustice." .Sethna also opposed bail applications filed by Manish Garhiyan and Avin Sahu claiming that at this stage the roles of the accused have to be viewed as intrinsically connected and joined in conspiracy.