Nearly three and half months after the Bombay High Court rejected the allegations made by it against Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan and two others, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Wednesday dismissed media report that there was no evidence against Aryan in the mid-sea drug bust case, by saying that “the media reports are not true” and “the investigation is not yet complete”.
Refuting the reports in a section of the media that there was no evidence to prove that Aryan was part of a larger drug conspiracy or an international drug trafficking syndicate, NCB’s Deputy Director-General (DDG) Sanjay Singh said: “As far as the media reports are concerned they're are not true these are just speculation and nothing else these reports were not cross checked with NCB”.
“Investigation is not yet complete. Nothing can be said at this stage. (It’s) Premature to say anything at this stage,” Singh said in a statement issued here.The NCB’s clarification came as bit of a surprise in view of fact that that Bombay High Court had on November 20,2021 had rejected outright investigating agency’s allegation that Aryan, two other accused Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha were part of conspiracy in case and also disallowed its effort to use their “confessional statements as a tool” to infer that they had committed offences under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. Giving his reasoning for granting bail to Aryan Khan, Arbaaz and Munmun in the mid-sea drug bust case on October 28, a single-member HC bench of Justice Nitin W Sambre had noted in his detailed order released on Saturday: “... there is no material on record to infer that applicants (Aryan and two others) have hatched conspiracy to commit offence.
That being so, at this stage, it is difficult to infer that the applicants are involved in an offence of commercial quantity. As such, parameters laid down under section 37 of the NDPS Act will hardly be of any consequence while considering the prayer for grant of bail”.
Raising serious manner in which the NCB investigated the case, the Judge had slammed the investigating agency for not subjecting to medical examination “so as to determine whether at the relevant time, they had consumed drugs” and made mince meat of the investigators’ claim that they had found incriminating whatsapp chat from Aryan’s phone, by observing that “nothing objectionable could be noticed to suggest that he and two other accused had hatched a conspiracy.
The Judge noted that going by material brought on record before it, “this Court has prima facie not noticed any positive evidence against applicants”. “This court is of opinion that claim put forth by the respondent that the applicants should be considered to have the common intention to commit an offence under NDPS Act, having been found in possession of commercial quantity.
In backdrop of a case of hatching conspiracy is liable to be rejected”. At beginning of his summerised order relating to all accused, the Judge said that they had no criminal antecedents of similar nature or otherwise. While Aryan and Arbaaz were students, Munmun was working as a model. Alluding to claim to the contrary made by the NCB, the Judge said: “As far as the accused number 1 Aryan is concerned, but for irrelevant whatsapp chats noticed in his mobile, there is no material evidence to connect all these applicants with other co-accused in the case”.
Aryan, Arbaaz, Munmun were among eight persons who were initially detained on night of October 2, 2021 and later arrested on October 3, after NCB officials busted a rave party and seized 13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams of MD (Mephedrone), 21 grams of Charas, 22 pills of MDMA (Ecstasy) and Rs 1.33 lakh in cash from Goa-bound Cordelia Cruises' Empress ship, off the Mumbai coast. Subsequently, 12 more persons were arrested in the mid-sea drug bust case.
Observing that Aryan was not found in possession of any objectionable substance, the Judge said that Arbaaz and Munmun were found to be in illegal possession of drugs which is covered under the provisions of the NDPS Act. If independently considered, drugs seized from Arbaaz and Munmun was a small quantity “which is not a disputed fact”
Tearing into NCB’s allegation that Aryan and two other accused were part of conspiracy, the Judge said: “For inferring act of hatching conspiracy on part of Aryan and two other accused, there has to be positive evidence about an agreement to do a unlawful act or to do a lawful act by unlawful means and such agreement must precede meeting of minds... There is hardly any positive evidence to convince this court that all accused persons with common intention agreed to commit unlawful act”.