After 25 days in jail, Aryan Khan gets bail [Read Timeline]

The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to Aryan Khan , son of Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan, in the cruise ship drug case in which Khan is the prime accused.

. Khan was taken into custody by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on October 2, 2021 after the NCB raided a cruise ship en route to Goa from Mumbai. Khan was arrested from the terminal to the cruise.

. He was arrested for contravention of Sections 8(c), 20(b), 27, 28, 29 and 35 of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

NCB has alleged that it has seized 13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams of mephedrone MD, 21 gram charas and 22 pills of MDMA ecstasy.

. Khan's bail application came up for hearing before the High Court on October 26, 2021 and after hearing the matter for 3 consecutive days, Justice Nitin Sambre granted him bail.

The following is a quick recap of the events over the past 25 days which Khan spent in jail - first under NCB custody and subsequently in judicial custody.

. October 2 (Saturday night) : NCB apparently based on a specific information it had received, conducted a raid on the cruise ship which was about to set sail from the terminal.

Khan was intercepted at the terminal even before he could board the ship and was interrogated and searched by the NCB officials.

Post such interrogation, he was taken to the NCB office where he was allegedly detained till the next date.

. October 3 : By Sunday afternoon, the NCB registered a first information report, FIR no 94 of 2021 in which Khan was the prime accused.

News of his arrest was officially confirmed by 3 pm.

Khan was produced for remand before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) RK Rajebhosale after 7 pm along with co-accused Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha.

After a brief hearing , Khan was remanded to one day NCB custody .

. October 4 : Khan's remand along with the other two co-accused was extended till October 7, 2021 .

There were five other accused who were also produced by NCB and were remanded to NCB custody by ACMM RM Nerlikar .

The five were Mohak Jaswal, Vikrant Chhoker, Nupur Satija, Gomit Chopra and Ishmeet Singh.

.[Aryan Khan] NCB Custody will be useful to accused as well to prove their innocence: Mumbai Court. October 5 : NCB produced four more accused for remand in the case. The accused were Abdul Kadir, Shreyas Nair, Manish Rajgariya and Avin Sahu.

All four were remanded to NCB custody till October 11, 2021 .

Meanwhile Merchant moved a bail application before the ACMM and also filed an application seeking CCTV footage of the terminal from where he and Khan were arrested.

. October 6 : Continuing their string of arrests from the cruise, NCB arrested four more persons who were allegedly part of the organising team for the event/ party on the cruise.

The accused, Gopal Anand, Samir Saigal, Manav Singhal and Bhaskar Arora, were remanded to NCB custody till October 14, 2021 .

. October 7 : NCB's plea seeking extension of custody was rejected and Khan was remanded to judicial custody along with seven other accused.

Immediately thereafter, Khan moved his applications for bail before the ACMM.

The Magistrate granted time to NCB to respond on the maintainability of the bail plea and adjourned the hearing in Khan's application along with applications of Merchant and Dhamecha for the next day .

. October 8 : Judge Nerlikar took up the three bail applications for hearing. After a marathon hearing of about 5 hours, he rejected the applications holding that the applications were not maintainable .

During the same hearing , two more accused were remanded to NCB custody. One Aachit Kumar was remanded to NCB custody till October 9, 2021; the second, a foreign national, Chinedu Igwe, was remanded to NCB custody till October 11, 2021.

The same evening, Khan moved the Sessions Court for bail.

. October 9 : Kumar was remanded to judicial custody after NCB prayed for the same in their application.

. October 10 : An alleged supplier linked to Arbaaz Merchant, Shivraj Ramdas , was remanded to NCB custody till October 11, 2021 by Holiday Magistrate ACMM SD Kamat .

. October 11: Khan's bail application was mentioned before the Special Court under the NDPS Act for urgent hearing as it was not listed on the board.

As NCB sought time to file a reply to the application, the plea was posted for hearing to October 13, 2021.

The Court also posted four other bail pleas by co-accused for hearing indicating that it will start hearing the bail plea with Khan's application.

The ACMM meanwhile remanded a 20th accused to judicial custody till October 25, 2021.

The latest accused, the second foreign national arrested in the case, was one Okaro Uzeoma a Nigerian national who was remanded to judicial custody with Kadir, Nair, Rajgariya, Sahu, Igwe and Shivraj.

With Uzeoma's arrest, the number of persons arrested in the case rose to 20 .

. October 13 : Special Judge VV Patil commences hearing Khan's bail application.

. October 14: Special Judge reserved verdict in the bail plea.

. October 20: Special Judge rejected bail plea of Khan . The bail pleas of co-accused Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha were also rejected by the Court.

The very same day, Khan filed appeal before Bombay High Court.

. October 21 : The matter was mentioned before Justice Nitin Sambre by advocate Satish Maneshinde appearing on behalf of Khan.

. October 26 : Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi made arguments on behalf of Khan.

Meanwhile, Khan also filed an affidavit before the High Court distancing himself from the Prabhakar Sail - Sameer Wankhade controversy.

Prabhakar Sail is an independent witness in the cruise ship drug case, whose affidavit had raised allegations against NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede. The affidavit had been widely reported in the media.

Sail had claimed in the affidavit that Wankhede and independent witnesses in the case were trying to extort money from the accused.

The NCB in its response to Khan's bail plea had claimed that Khan is an influential person and may tamper with witnesses and evidence.

In this regard, the NCB highlighted the affidavit of Prabhakar Sail , to buttress its claim that the probe is being interfered with.

To counter the same, Khan filed a 2-page affidavit stating that he has noting to do with the allegations and counter allegations that are currently in public and on social media between Sail, Wankhede and other personalities.

Khan also categorically said that he does not have any allegation against anyone in the prosecution department.

He prayed that his bail application should be decided on merits uninfluenced by Sail's or Wankhede's assertions/ allegations.

. October 27: Senior Advocate Amit Desai argued on behalf of Arbaaz Merchant while advocate Ali Kaashif Khan Deshmukh represented Munmun Dhamecha.

. October 28 : After hearing Additional Solicitor Anil Singh, the High Court granted bail to all three accused.

After 25 days in jail, Aryan Khan gets bail [Read Timeline]

Neha Joshi

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