NEW DELHI, Oct 9: The Narcotics Control Bureau on Saturday summoned the driver of the Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan for questioning in connection with the arrest of the actor’s son Aryan Khan during an anti-drugs raid on a cruise ship last week.
The NCB recorded the statement of the driver who the officials claimed had driven Aryan and his friends to the cruise ship that was headed for Goa from Mumbai.
Aryan Khan was arrested last Saturday night after the central agency raided the ship off Mumbai and said it had found narcotics. His last request for bail, based on the argument that no drugs were found on him, was turned down by a Mumbai court on Friday and was lodged in the Arthur Road jail.
A Mumbai magistrate’s court said Khan’s bail plea was “not maintainable” agreeing with the NCB that since drugs were seized a Sessions Court must hear the matter. The court also rejected pleas from two other accused – Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamechat.
Arguing against his bail, the NCB said releasing Aryan Khan could harm the case. The agency claimed he could tamper with evidence and influence witnesses. It also insisted that Aryan Khan and the others were “regular users of contraband.”
Aryan Khan’s lawyer, Satish Maneshinde, however, argued, “Not a single material to disclose any commit any conspiracy… no material has been found on me or in my bag… where is the material to prosecute? Since I am not found in possession of anything I cannot be trucked with them (other accused).” The court, however, disagreed with his arguments.
Many high-profile Indian actors and TV personalities have been under scrutiny from narcotics officials since last year following the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. In September 2020, several top female actors were questioned by the NCB, though it was unclear how the investigation progressed.
Reacting to the Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik’s allegations that the relatives of BJP leaders held in the raid had been allowed to go scot free, the NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede said the agency had actually let off six people, not three as Malik claimed.
Malik, a minister in the Maharashtra government whose son-in-law was arrested by the NCB in January this year, has brought a series of allegations against the NCB in connection with the Aryan Khan case. On Saturday, the minister said the agency let off three individuals and one of them is Rishabh Sachdeva, the brother-in-law of Mohit Bhartiyam a former Yuva Morcha chief of the BJP. The other two are Amir Furniturewala and Pratik Gaba, as Nawab Malik claimed.
“It has been said that we let off three people. But we actually let off six people as their roles didn’t transpire in the investigation. We had brought them to the office for inquiry by serving them notice under sections 67 of the NDPS Act and as their role was not found in the case, they were subsequently allowed to go. For security reasons, their identity can not be revealed,” Sameer Wankhede said.
Clarifying, the NCB said 14 people were detained at the time of the raid and eight of them were later placed under arrest while six were let off as there was no evidence against them. “We have recorded statements of all the detainees. The time of the statement has also been mentioned. NCB’s all actions were well within the law and transparent. The case related documents were produced before the court. We would soon file charge-sheet in the case,” NCB deputy director-general Gyaneshwar Singh said.
“All the allegations levelled against NCB are baseless, motivated afterthoughts & prejudiced in nature. Such statements are based on conjecture and assumptions. These assumptions are frivolous and malicious in view of documents and records of procedures duly followed by NCB that can subject to legal verification,” the agency said.
(Manas Dasgupta)
