A Mumbai court on Thursday rejected the plea by the NCB seeking further custody of actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan and seven other accused in relation to the drugs-on-cruise case.
Aryan Khan's bail plea will be heard at 11 am on Friday.
The Esplanade court passed the order stating that the NCB had adequate opportunity to interrogate Khan and others and no further custodial interrogation is required. "No custodial interrogation is required as sufficient time and opportunity was granted to NCB for investigation. Hence, they are remanded to judicial custody," the court ordered and sent all the accused to judicial custody for 14 days.
The NCB sought the custody of Aryan Khan and Arbaaz Merchant till Monday citing recovery of 2.6 grams ganja from them and name of the supplier, reported LiveLaw. The NCB had sought further custody of Aryan Khan on the ground that more persons might be arrested and they will have to be confronted with Khan and other accused.
Aarchit Kumar, alleged to have supplied drugs to Aryan Khan and Arbaaz Merchant, was remanded to NCB's custody till October 9.
Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant, and Munmun Dhamecha were arrested by the NCB on Sunday in connection with the seizure of banned drugs onboard a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast.
Earlier this week, the NCB had told the court that "shocking and incriminating" material recovered in WhatsApp chats of Aryan and two others arrested in connection with the case showed international drug trafficking.
Aryan's lawyer had claimed drugs were not recovered from the possession of his client. "Prima facie investigation conducted by the NCB reveals that there is incriminating material in the form of WhatsApp chats and so on that clearly shows the nexus with the arrested accused (Aryan Khan and two others) with suppliers and peddlers on a regular basis," the NCB had said in its remand note.
Officials of NCB Mumbai conducted a raid on the Cordelia Cruise on the way from Mumbai to Goa on October 2, 2021. A total of 8 persons, including Aryan Khan, were detained after the raids on Saturday night.
The accused were arrested in connection with the seizure of 13 grams of cocaine, 5gms of MD (mephedrone), 21 grams of charas, 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy), and Rs 1,33,000 at the International Cruise Terminal, Mumbai
Officials of NCB Mumbai conducted a raid on the Cordelia Cruise on the way from Mumbai to Goa on October 2, 2021. A total of 8 persons, including Aryan Khan, were detained after the raids. The accused were arrested in connection with the seizure of 13 grams of cocaine, 5gms of MD (mephedrone), 21 grams of charas, 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy) and Rs 1,33,000 at the International Cruise Terminal, Mumbai
After the getting tip of the rave party, 22 officials of NCB booked tickets as normal passengers on the cruise by paying Rs 80,000 per passenger. These officials entered the cruise in plain clothes and conducted the raid and took the video of the people who were in possession of drugs on the ship. The code word for the rave party was RP-PCR.
A source said that the Mumbai police had also got a tip about this same party but they could not afford to buy this high-cost ticket for the cruise party and were not sure about the large-scale drug racket and probable big names.