The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) while giving a clean chit to Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, in last year’s drugs-on-cruise case has said that there was no recovery of drugs from him, nor was there any concrete evidence to prove that he conspired with the other accused.
The NCB on Friday filed a charge-sheet in a Mumbai court against 14 out of 20 persons who were arrested in the case last October following a raid on a cruise ship and alleged seizure of drugs. Six accused, including Aryan Khan, were not named due to lack of evidence, the central agency said.
Those who have not been chargesheeted besides Aryan are: Avin Sahu, Gopal Anand, Samir Saighan, Bhaskar Aroda and Manav Singhal.
The 14 who have been chargesheeted are: Arbaaz Merchant, Munmun Dhamecha, Vikrant Chhokar, Mohak Jaiswal, Ishmeet Singh Chadha, Gomit Chopra, Nupur Satija, Abdul Kadar Shaikh, Shreyas Nair, Manish Rajgariya, Aachit Kumar, Chinedu Igwe, Shivraj Harijan and Okoro Uzeoma.
The NCB SIT found “grave irregularities” and gaps in the probe, the officials said, adding the agency’s first team that arrested Aryan did not follow rules like mandatory medical test of accused, video recording of the raids and corroborate evidence for WhatsApp chats.
NCB director general S N Pradhan told reporters in Delhi that there were “shortcomings” in the investigation and WhatsApp chat of accused had no “physical corroborative evidence” as required to prove the charges in the court.
What is the Mumbai cruise drugs case?
The NCB arrested Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant, and Munmun Dhamecha – along with many others (who were arrested on different dates through the course of investigations) – on October 3 after a raid conducted by the agency on a cruise ship off the coast of Mumbai.
The NCB squad, led by officer Sameer Wankhede, found a minor quantity of cocaine, mephedrone, charas, hydroponic weed, MDMA, and Rs 1,33,000 in cash.
On October 7, a Mumbai court sent Aryan and seven other accused to 14-day judicial custody. The next day, October 8, the court rejected the bail pleas of Aryan, Merchant and Dhamecha.
After spending more than three weeks at the central Mumbai facility following his arrest, the son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was released on bond on October 30.
The various controversies in the Mumbai cruise drugs case
The first major controversy in the case erupted when Kiran Gosavi, an independent witness in the case, was found with Aryan in a selfie. Gosavi was later arrested in a cheating case by Pune Police.
Prabhakar Sail, another witness in the case and the driver of Gosavi, alleged that Gosavi and another person connived and extorted Rs 50 lakh from Sharukh Khan’s manager Pooja Dadlani on the pretext of not arresting Aryan. He had claimed that Gosavi was working at the behest of an NCB officer in order to extort Rs 25 crore from Shah Rukh Khan to let off Aryan.
Sail died of a heart attack in April this year.
In the midst of these allegations, Wankhede was accused by Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik of submitting a false caste certificate to secure a job in the civil services under the Scheduled Caste quota. Subsequently, Wankhede was not only removed from the case but transferred to the directorate of revenue and intelligence, where he was posted before, in a non-operational role.
The Centre on Friday, after NCB’s clean chit to Aryan Khan, recommended action against the agency’s former zonal director Wankhede over his “shoddy investigation” in the case, as per reports.
Sanjay Kumar Singh, the SIT head who gave clean chit to Aryan Khan
Following Wankhede’s removal, IPS officer Sanjay Kumar Singh was appointed to lead the Cordelia Cruise drugs case. Prior to joining NCB in January 2021, Singh served as the additional director general of police of the drug-task force of Odisha police.
In the Aryan Khan case, he made multiple visits to Mumbai to oversee the probe by his team and scrutinized all statements before taking a call that there was no evidence to charge the youngster.
A report in Hindustan Times describes SIT chief and NCB Deputy Director-General (Operations) Singh to be a “soft-spoken officer” who thoroughly follows investigations and is known to “always follow the rulebook”.
Detailing the agency’s findings in the cruise raid case, Singh said, “There was no video recording of the searches done by the investigating team. Most of the people were arrested on the basis of confessions. No medical test was done on anyone to prove whether they consumed drugs.”
Details of NCB’s charge-sheet in Mumbai cruise drugs case
The charge-sheet noted that analysis of statements of Arbaaz Merchant, a co-accused and a friend of Aryan, showed that Merchant never claimed that the 6 gm charas recovered from his possession was meant for consumption by Aryan.
Aryan too, in his voluntary statements, never accepted that the recovered charas was meant for him, it added.
“In fact, Arbaaz in his statement of October 6, 2021, stated that he was warned by Aryan Khan not to carry any narcotic drug on to the cruise,” the NCB said.
“No recovery of drugs from Aryan Khan and non-availability of any concrete evidence which could prove role of Aryan Khan or his conspiracy with Arbaaz Merchant or any other accused in the instant case beyond reasonable doubt, surfaced up during the investigation carried so far. Hence, no complaint is being filed against him in the instant case,” the charge-sheet said.
But the charge sheet mentioned that in one of his statements, Aryan accepted that he had consumed marijuana when he was in Los Angeles, United States “on experimental basis for recreational purpose,” and also accepted his WhatsApp chats with another accused Aachit for drug procurement. Aryan stated that they talked about buying “Dokha”, a word used for weed, it said.
Aryan also admitted to his chat conversation with actor Ananya Pandey regarding weed procurement, the charge-sheet claimed. But Ananya, in her statement, said the chats related to weed were “in jest and it was a joke in an attempt to be funny,” the charge-sheet said.
“She told (the agency) that all the chats held with Aryan were an extension of the same joke as mentioned earlier. Ananya Pandey told that Aryan is lying and she is completely unaware why Aryan said something like this,” the charge-sheet claimed.
Upon search of her house no illicit contraband was found, however, some electronic gadgets were seized, the charge-sheet said.
Here’s where the matter stands now
The Narcotics Bureau chief said the initial investigation had loopholes which led to the formation of the Special Investigation Team.
“The Special Investigation Team was formed because there were irregularities in the investigation at the local level. There were some loopholes and the SIT was formed to fix them. We also took action against some officials,” NCB chief SN Pradhan said at a presser on Friday (May 27).
NCP spokesman Clyde Crasto said, “If Aryan Khan was clean, why was he tainted? What was the motive? Who will be held responsible for the trauma this young man suffered? Many questions arise.”
Congress leader P Chidambaram, reacting to the development, said it is now admitted that there was no evidence against Aryan Khan. “Who will bear responsibility for the trauma of the young man?” the former home minister said.
“Investigation must lead to arrest. Sadly, in many cases, arrest comes first and investigation follows,” he said. This is a “perversion” of the procedure established by law, Chidambaram added.
Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole accused the BJP of misusing central agencies saying Aryan Khan issue was “a ploy by the BJP to show Muslims are into drugs.” He also alleged that Aryan’s arrest was used as a plot to cause religious divide between Hindus and Muslims during Uttar Pradesh elections.
Although the NCB has dropped Aryan Khan’s name from the charge-sheet now, it can name him in a supplementary charge-sheet at any point if evidence is found against Aryan. As per a constitution bench ruling of the Supreme Court in 2014, a person whose name does not figure in an FIR or a chargesheet but whose role in an alleged crime surfaces during the course of a trial would be subjected to the said trial.
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