[Aryan Khan Drug Case] Alleged supplier nabbed with commercial quantity moves Bombay High Court for bail

Alleged drug supplier Abdul Kadar Shaikh has approached the Bombay High Court seeking regular bail in the cruise ship drug case in which Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan, is the prime accused. .Shaikh, a 30-year-old senior executive, was allegedly apprehended at a bus stop in Mumbai by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) with 54.3 grams of mephedrone and 2.5 grams of ecstasy, which is a commercial quantity. He was booked for various offences punishable under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.A Special NDPS Court had rejected his regular bail application last month. .Shaikh claimed that he was illegally detained by the NCB for more than 24 hours before he was produced before a magistrate's court for remand. It was his contention that he was detained on October 3 this year, but was shown as arrested only on October 4, before finally being produced before the magistrate on October 5, leading to a violation of his fundamental right to life and personal liberty. Shaikh had been in NCB custody till October 11, and was then remanded to judicial custody..Shaikh stated in his bail plea, filed through Advocate Apoorv Srivastav, that the remand applications against him did not contain any specific allegations apart from the alleged recovery. He claimed that he had never been sent a notice under Section 50 of the NDPS Act, as claimed by the NCB.He further stated that the NCB got two panch witnesses in his case, one of whom as per media reports had criminal antecedents and was a habitual panch. Hence, the entire operation was questionable and suspicious, he argued. Another claim he made was that he had not been searched by gazetted officers, as required under the NDPS Act.It was, therefore, his case that he was being made a scapegoat as he was not involved in any criminal conspiracy or abetment to commit any offence.