Tag: mohit bharatiya

Special Court Asks NCB to File Reply in Aryan Khan’s Bail Application

Aryan, the son of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, was arrested on October 3 and has been in jail since. His counsel has noted that no narcotics were found on him.

Mumbai: A special court here Monday directed the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to file its reply on October 13 to a bail plea filed by Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, arrested in connection with the seizure of banned drugs on board a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast.

Special Judge V.V. Patil, hearing matters related to the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, said it would hear the bail plea on Wednesday (October 13).

Aryan Khan was arrested on October 3. He is currently in judicial custody and lodged at the Arthur Road prison in Mumbai.

He approached the special court for bail after his plea for the same was rejected by a magistrate’s court last week on the ground that it did not have the jurisdiction to decide the matter.

On Monday, when Aryan Khan’s counsel Amit Desai mentioned the bail plea, NCB’s advocates A M Chimalkar and Advait Sethna sought a week’s time to respond and file their affidavit.

They said the investigation in the case was still on and there was quite a lot of material collected by the agency and at this stage, it needs to be seen if releasing Aryan Khan on bail would hamper the probe into the case.

Also read: ‘BJP Leader’s Kin, 2 Others Detained After Cruise Drugs Raid Were Let Go Within Hours’: NCP

Desai, however, objected to it, saying a person’s liberty is at question here, and argued that releasing the accused on bail would not stop the investigation in the case.

“The bail will not stop the investigation. The NCB can continue their probe. That is their duty. But, keeping my client (Aryan Khan) in custody, especially when there has been no recovery (of drugs) from him, is not required,” Desai said.

“He (Aryan) has not been found in possession of any narcotics and there is no other material against him. Since his arrest, he has been in the custody of the NCB for a week and his statement was recorded twice. Why does he still need to be in jail?” the senior counsel argued.

Chimalkar, however, said that the agency needs at least a few days time to file its reply.

“What Desai is arguing appears to be rosy, but this is not what the investigation reveals or divulges. Aryan Khan is in judicial custody. Whether his release on bail will affect or hamper our investigation needs to be seen,” Chimalkar said.

Sethna, appearing for NCB, told the court that there was no extreme urgency for the bail plea to be heard immediately.

Desai then sought the court to hear and decide Aryan Khan’s plea separately, saying the recovery of drugs from each accused in the case was different.

But, Chimalkar and Sethna opposed it and said the conspiracy is the same.

Apart from Aryan Khan, four other accused in the case – Arbaaz Merchant, Munmun Dhamecha, Nupur Sateja, and Mohak Jaiswal – have also filed bail pleas in the special court.

The court said it would start hearing Aryan Khan’s bail plea on Wednesday.

Aryan Khan has been charged with offences under Sections 8(c), 20(b), 27, 28, 29 and 35 of the NDPS Act pertaining to possession, consumption and purchase of drugs.

The NCB has so far arrested 20 people in the case.

‘BJP Leader’s Kin, 2 Others Detained After Cruise Drugs Raid Were Let Go Within Hours’: NCP

The brother-in-law of BJP leader Mohit Bharatiya and two others who had brought Aryan Khan to the cruise ship were all let go within hours of detention, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said.

New Delhi: The Nationalist Congress Party raised the heat on the Narcotics Control Bureau’s investigation into the ‘cruise drugs’ case, in which Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan’s son is held, by claiming that the NCB let go of a person connected with the Bharatiya Janata Party hours after having detained him in the same case.

Mohit Bharatiya. Photo: Twitter/@mohitbharatiya_

NCP leader and spokesperson Nawab Malik on Saturday, October 9, claimed that the NCB had initially detained 11 people from the Goa-bound cruise ship off Mumbai coast last week, but let off three of them, including the brother-in-law of BJP leader Mohit Bharatiya, a couple of hours later.

The fresh NCP allegation comes days after it pointed out that two people in the NCB team that raided the cruise ship off Mumbai, were civilians and one of them is a BJP member. The latter later confessed in a TV interview that he is, indeed, a BJP member and was an informer in the case.

Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, Malik, who is also a Maharashtra minister, alleged that Mohit Bharatiya’s brother-in-law Rishabh Sachdeva was among three persons let go by the BJP.

Two others – Pratik Gabba and Aamir Furniturewala – who had brought Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan to the cruise party, were released along with Sachdeva two hours after their detention, he said.

A metropolitan magistrate’s court on Friday had denied bail to Aryan Khan, Munmun Dhamecha and Arbaaz Merchantt. The court on Thursday had sent Khan and seven others arrested in the case to 14-day judicial remand after their NCB custody ended.

Bharatiya declined comment to the news agency PTI on NCP’s allegation, but his office said he would hold a press conference later in the day.


“The names of Pratik and Aamir figured in the ongoing hearings in the court,” Malik said.

Malik had earlier announced that on Saturday he would reveal the name of the BJP leader, whose brother-in-law, he claimed, was let off by the anti-drug agency.

Based on a tip-off that a party was to take place on board the ship, an NCB team led by its zonal director Sameer Wankhede had raided the Cordelia cruise last Saturday and claimed to have recovered banned drugs. A total of 18 persons have been arrested in the case, including Aryan Khan.

The NCP leader demanded that the call records of these three persons along with that of Wankhede be examined.

“Rishabh Sachdeva’s father and uncle came to the NCB office and telephonic conversations happened between Wankhede and the BJP leaders in Mumbai and Delhi from the phone of Sachdeva’s father,” Malik claimed.

“Why were the phones of these three persons not seized?” he asked.

Also read: Two Men Involved in NCB Cruise Raid Civilians, Says NCP; One Admits to Being ‘Loyal BJP Worker’

According to Malik, the Mumbai police were also given information that 11 persons had been detained from the cruise ship.

Malik also alleged that the NCB’s raid on the cruise was “fake, planned and conspired to defame the film industry and the Maharashtra government”.

“Selective people have been arrested…The matter is serious. CCTV footage should be taken and a detailed inquiry should be conducted,” the minority affairs minister alleged.

He also hit at the BJP for attacking him over his allegations.

“The BJP says that I am attacking the NCB since my son-in-law was arrested by the agency. I have never supported my son-in-law and he will fight his case. How can I give information I have in this case to the NCB which has framed a false case. If an independent commission is set up to conduct a probe, I will do so,” Malik said.

His son-in-law Sameer Khan had been arrested by the NCB on January 13 this year in an alleged drugs case. He got bail in September.