A Mumbai Sessions Court on Wednesday rejected the bail application filed by Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, in the cruise ship drugs case..The bail pleas of co-accused Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha were also rejected by Additional Sessions Judge VV Patil."Bail applications 2571/ 21, 2576/ 21 and 2583/21 stand rejected," the Court ordered.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. He was placed under arrest on October 3 and charged with offences under Section 8(c), 20(b), 27, 28, 29 and 35 under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act..He was remanded to NCB custody till October 4, which was extended till October 7.Thereafter, he was remanded to judicial custody after which he immediately moved for bail. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate RM Nerlikar had rejected the bail application, holding that it was not maintainable as only the special court of sessions was entitled to hear the bail plea. Subsequently, Khan moved the special court under the NDPS Act seeking bail.After submissions were made by Senior Advocate Amit Desai for Khan and Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh for NCB, the Sessions Judge had reserved the verdict on October 14..Singh had opposed the bail application filed by Aryan Khan and three others on the ground that they were are accused of illicit drug trafficking and criminal conspiracy under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. For this reason, he argued, that Khan could not be treated separately from the 17 others accused in the case and hence ought not be released when the investigation was only at a preliminary stage. .Singh submitted that NCB was trying to uncover a possible international drug trafficking chain in which all the accused including Khan and his friend Arbaaz Merchant were possibly involved and hence their custody was paramount to avoid any kind of influence on the other witnesses..This was opposed by Desai who argued that there had been no recovery of drugs or any substance from Khan as admitted by NCB.Further, Khan’s bail was being opposed by invoking Section 27A and Section 29, which are some of the most serious offences in the Act, and none of these sections had even been invoked against him in the arrest memo. .According to Desai, the only section which imposed punishment for “illicit trafficking” in the entire act was Section 27A, and that was not slapped against Khan in the arrest memos or any of the remands. Yet it was one of the grounds mentioned for opposing the bail application, Desai pointed out..According to ASG, Khan had exchanges over WhatsApp with supposed dealers involved in international drug trafficking for purported “bulk quantities” of drugs and hence even if the concerned provisions under NDPS Act may not have been arraigned against him, he could be “conspiring” with accused under those sections. NCB’s contention was that all the accused in the present case possibly have a close nexus which the bureau is still in the process of discovering. ASG added that 5 accused out of the 20 are peddlers and were somehow connected to other accused. Similarly they might end up unearthing more such links. He also added that since Khan is influential, he may end up tampering with evidence or witnesses..[Read Order]
