The Bombay High Court on Thursday decided to grant an urgent hearing to Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan, arrested in the cruise ship drugs case. The HC has posted Aryan's bail plea on Tuesday, along with the one filed by co-accused Munmun Dhamecha, who was also arrested on October 2 by the NCB.
Aryan's counsel Satish Maneshinde mentioned his client's bail application before a single-judge bench of Justice Nitin Sambre and urged the court to grant an urgent hearing, either on Friday or Monday.
"This is a clear case, wherein there is no evidence against my client to show he possessed or consumed any drugs," Maneshinde told the bench.
The counsel, accordingly urged the judge to grant an urgent hearing. However, additional solicitor general Anil Singh for NCB, opposed the request on the ground that the accused hasn't served a copy of the bail application to the agency.
"We have already given a copy to him electronically (on email) but we would give him a physical copy too," Maneshinde assured the court.
Accordingly, the court adjourned his bail plea for hearing on Tuesday. The court even kept Dhamecha's plea for bail filed through her counsel Ali Kaashif Khan Deshmukh, on Tuesday.
Notably, a special court designated to hear cases under the NDPS law had on Wednesday rejected Aryan’s bail application, saying that incriminating material was found in his WhatsApp chats that showed his nexus with suppliers and peddlers.
The trio - Aryan, Munmun and Arbaz Merchant - were arrested on October 3 following 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, failed to get relief from the special court on Wednesday.
While rejecting their bail application, special Judge VV Patil said that perusal of Aryan's WhatsApp chats showed chats about drugs with unknown persons. Further, he said there was also reference to bulk quantities and hard drugs in the chats. There was prima facie material showing that he was in contact with persons dealing in prohibited narcotic substances as alleged by the prosecution.
The court has further said that the chats prime facie revealed that Aryan was involved in illicit drug activities on a regular basis. Therefore, it could not be said that he would not commit such an offence while out on bail.
