Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 27: A Special Investigation Team of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has cleared Aryan Khan, the 23-year old son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, and five others of all the charges in the infamous “drugs-in-cruise” case. The NCB on Friday filed the charge-sheet before a Mumbai court against 14 accused but it did not name Aryan Khan and five others in the case of drugs found in a raid by the Bureau personnel on a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast when it was on its way to Goa in October, last year.
Aryan and 19 others were arrested by the NCB’s Mumbai zonal unit on October 3, 2021 on charges that they were all “’intrinsically connected” to a conspiracy involving drugs and was released on bail after spending 27 days in a jail for a crime which now proved he never committed.
According to a press release issued by the NCB, “All accused were found in possession of narcotics except Aryan (Khan) and Mohak. The touchstone of the principle of proof beyond reasonable doubt has been applied. Based on which a complaint has been filed against 14 accused and a complaint against six (including Aryan Khan) is not filed due to lack of sufficient evidence,” statement signed by senior NCB officer Sanjay Kumar Singh said. “The agency could not find sufficient evidence against Aryan Khan and the five others,” he said.
The agency had filed an application before the special Narcotics Drugs Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act court on March 28 seeking more time to file the charge sheet in the alleged drugs case busted on October 2 when 13 grams of cocaine, five grams of MD (mephedrone), 21 grams of charas, 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy) and ₹1,33,000 cash were seized at the International Cruise Terminal, Mumbai. The agency was granted two months extension with Friday (May 27) being the last day for filling the charge-sheet.
While nothing was seized from Aryan when the search was conducted on October 2 last year, the NCB had arrested him on the basis of chats claimed to have been found on his phone seized from him. The NCB had claimed that it was also relying on “’voluntary statements” given by some of the accused – which were later retracted – to show that they had consumed contraband. No tests were however conducted to prove consumption.
Aryan was arrested and produced before a magistrate’s court on October 3, which had sent him to the NCB’s custody for a day. On October 4, the NCB again sought Aryan’s custody, stating that though no drugs were found on him, they were seeking his further custody for one week to probe his role “pointing towards international drug trafficking” based on the chats procured from his phone. The court had then sent Aryan to NCB custody till October 7. On that day, the NCB again sought his custody but the agency’s plea was rejected by the court, which sent Aryan and seven others to judicial custody.
Aryan had then moved for bail before the magistrate’s court, which rejected it on October 8 on grounds of non-maintainability, since the sections added by the NCB were triable before the special NDPS court.
The NCB chief SN Pradhan admitted that there were “irregularities” in the initial investigation and that action would be taken against those responsible for the lapses. The NCB had initially claimed that Aryan Khan was a “regular user and supplier of drugs.” The charges were strongly denied by the actor’s son and his lawyers who contended that no drugs were found on him during the raid.
The NCB’s arguments were also questioned by a special court hearing the case, which said it could not just rely on WhatsApp messages to make such grave allegations. The person in charge of the investigation, Anti-narcotics officer Sameer Wankhede, was dropped and faced allegations of deliberately targeting Aryan Khan and even trying to blackmail the accused. The case was also transferred from a Mumbai-based team of the NCB to a Delhi-based team after lapses in the probe emerged.
The NCB sources said Sameer Wankhede faces action both for allegedly submitting a fake caste certificate and “shoddy investigation” into the drugs case. “The competent authority has been asked by the government to act against Sameer Wankhede for shoddy investigation. Action will be taken against him for his fake caste certificate,” the sources said.
Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik had alleged Wankhede had used fake caste certificate to land a government job after which he had last November gave what he claimed was his original caste papers to prove that he is a Dalit to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes. Wankhede headed the NCB’s Mumbai zone and handled initial investigation after the cruise raid in which Aryan Khan was arrested.
Among the glaring irregularities found in Wankhede’s investigation into the case were that there was no videography of the search operation, there were lapses in the seizure of Aryan Khan’s phone. The chats do not connect him to this case and no medical test was conducted to prove consumption of drugs. While one witness put up by Wankhede turned hostile and informed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that he was made to sign blank papers, two witnesses told the SIT that they weren’t even present at the location. No drugs were found on Aryan Khan yet all the accused were clubbed together and same charges were invoked against everyone.
“Now that Aryan Khan and 5 others get a clean chit. Will NCB take action against Sameer Wankhede his team and the private army? Or will it shield the culprits?” the office of Nawab Malik tweeted.
After Aryan Khan was cleared of all the charges, Shah Rukh Khan became a “very relieved” person, senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi, who represented Aryan Khan in court and secured bail for him, said. “I am very relieved and so must be my clients, including Shah Rukh Khan. Ultimately, truth has prevailed,” he said.
“There was no material to charge this young man or arrest him. No drugs were found on him. I am happy that the NCB acted professionally in admitting their mistake,” added the lawyer. “The anxiety it caused to the accused and his parents…it was a harrowing experience for him and his family,” said Rohatgi.
The case has been mired in controversy since the beginning, when a selfie with Aryan by one of the men accompanying the accused went viral. The man was later identified as Kiran Gosavi, who the NCB said was an independent panch witness. It later came to light that Gosavi had a criminal background with multiple cases pending against him with the Maharashtra police.
Another panch witness had also come forward stating that he was forced to sign blank papers. Within a month, even as the investigation was on in the case by the Mumbai NCB zonal unit led by its head Wankhede, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was constituted and the case was transferred to it on November 6, 2021, and on March 2, its chief Sanjay Singh said it was highly premature to say that there was no evidence against Khan in the case.