MUMBAI: Within hours of a special court turning down their bail pleas, Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and the other two accused - Munmun Dhamecha and Arbaaz Merchant moved the Bombay High Court on Wednesday evening, seeking bail.
The trio through their respective advocates have filed their bail applications in the HC and have even challenged the special court's orders denying them bail.
"We have filed the bail pleas. We aren't mentioning our applications today but would try it tomorrow morning," confirmed advocate Ali Kashif Khan Deshmukh, who represents Dhamecha in the cruise ship drugs case.
As per the HC roster, the bail applications from Mumbai district are to be heard by a single judge bench of Justice Nitin Sambre. Accordingly, the trio can mention their pleas on Thursday morning before Justice Sambre and seek an urgent hearing.
Meanwhile, in her bail plea before the HC, Dhamecha has stated that the NCB has filed the FIR on false and baseless allegations and that the agency has concocted a bogus case against her. She has further stated that she had no idea about who all are boarding the ship and that the NCB has unnecessarily connected her with Khan and Merchant despite the fact that she is nowhere connected with them.
The bail plea further states that the central agency has been deliberately targeting the Bollywood industry and that she is being framed in this case along with Khan just to highlight the case both nationally and internationally. She has denied having any links with the other accused arrested by the agency after her arrest and that she has never purchased any psychotropic substance or drugs.
Notably, a special court presided over by Judge V V Patil rejected their applications on Wednesday afternoon.
It would not be out of place to mention that the NCB has invoked sections 8(c) read with sections 20b, 35 and 27 of the NDPS Act against Khan and the other two accused.
The trio was arrested on October 3, in connection with 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 International Cruise Terminal, Mumbai.
The NCB has further highlighted the WhatsApp chats retrieved from Khan's cell phone after his arrest and has claimed that it indicates that he was in touch with certain persons, who could be part of an international drug racket. It has also been alleged that Khan's chats indicate that he has been consuming drugs for a few years.
Refuting the allegations, Khan has maintained that no drug was found on his person and thus the NCB's contention of seizures was wrong and absurd.
