Mukul Rohatgi, former attorney general of India who is representing Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan in the drugs-on-cruise case, told a Bombay High Court which is hearing the junior Khan’s bail application, that his client was not a customer on the Goa-bound cruise from where the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) caught him following a raid and that he was only invited as a guest.
Tearing to shreds the NCB’s two biggest allegations against Aryan – conspiracy and posession – Rohatgi told a single bench of Justice N W Sambre that: “How can I be charged with conscious possession if someone carried something in his shoes? There is no medical test also to prove I consumed the drugs.”
“As there was no recovery no consumption, I (Aryan Khan) was arrested wrongly. What is put against me is that accused 2 (Arbaaz Merchantt) came with me and had something on him. So I am charged with conscious possession of drugs?” he argued further.
It is the NCB’s case that there has been recovery of an intermediate quantity of drugs from the other accused in the case and hence, the case of Aryan Khan cannot be looked at in isolation.
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The NCB has opposed Aryan’s bail plea alleging the 23-year-old was not just a consumer of drugs, but also involved in illicit drug trafficking. The agency also claimed that Aryan Khan and a woman named Pooja Dadlani, Shah Rukh Khan’s manager, were tampering with the evidence and witnesses in the case in an attempt to derail the investigation.
Aryan Khan’s advocates also submitted to the HC an additional note, stating that he has nothing to do with the allegations and counter allegations that are being circulated between the NCB’s zonal director Sameer Wankhede and certain political personalities. “The applicant (Aryan Khan) does not make any allegations against any individual in the prosecution department,” the note said.
On the NCB’s allegations of Aryan being in touch with an ‘international drug peddler via WhatsApp’, Rohatgi argued that the chats being cited are old and taken out of context. “My WhatsApp chats of 2018, 2019 and 2020 (are being cited). These chats are not related to the cruise case. The cruise case started with Gaba (Pratik Gaba) and ended there. There is no connection between my chats and present case,” he said.
“The law is clear, you treat them as victims and not as hardened criminals… Social Ministry in Delhi has taken thus approach. Approach isn’t to send to jail, but to send to rehab,” he said.
The anti-drugs agency in its affidavit has said that prima facie investigation has revealed that Aryan Khan used to procure drugs from his friend Arbaaz Merchant, also an accused in the case. “The applicant (Aryan Khan) was in touch with some persons abroad who appear to be part of an international drug network for illicit procurement of drugs,” it said.
The affidavit further said even though there has been no recovery from Aryan Khan, he has “participated in the conspiracy”.
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Source: News18