No bail for Aryan Khan, 2 others, to move Bombay HC on Thursday

Mumbai, Oct 20 (IANS) In a massive jolt to Aryan Khan, a special NDPS court in Mumbai on Wednesday rejected the bail plea of the son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan in the case related to the raid on a rave party aboard a cruise ship on October 2.

Special NDPS Judge V.V. Patil also declined the bail applications of Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, the two others accused in the drug case lodged by Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

"Bail applications 2571/21, 2576/21 and 2583/21 stand rejected. Accordingly, bail applications are disposed off," Patil said this afternoon, though a detailed order is awaited.

Shortly thereafter, Aryan Khan's lawyers, senior advocate Amit Desai and Satish Maneshinde rushed to the Bombay High Court to mention the matter before Justice N.W. Sambre, but the court hours had ended, and now, the matter is likely to come up on Thursday.

Nationalist Congress Party national spokesperson and Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik and Shiv Sena leader Kishore Tiwari have again flayed the NCB and claimed the case will not stand the scrutiny of the higher courts.

Aryan Khan, Merchant and Dhamecha, along with five others were detained on October 2, and placed under arrest on October 3 after the NCB raided the luxury ship preparing to sail on a Mumbai-Goa cruise.

Initially, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R.M. Nerlikar had sent them to a day's custody which was later extended till October 7, and later sent to judicial custody for 14 days, and transferred the case to the Special NDPS court.

Later, their lawyers moved the special court for bail which was rejected after several days of hearing in which the NCB's counsel, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh vehemently opposed bail for the accused.

Among other things, the NDPS accused Aryan Khan of being a regular consumer of drugs, dealing in narcotics and the case having international links, etc as evident from his WhatsApp chats.

The NCB's contentions were strongly countered by his lawyers, especially since no drugs were recovered from him and the lawyers of the other co-accused also strongly pleaded for bail.

Singh, however, argued that at least five out of the 20 arrested are drug peddlers and are somehow linked with the other co-accused which the NCB is trying to unearth.

Besides Khan, Merchant and Dhamecha, the others arrested on October 3 include Nupur Satija, Ishmeet Singh Chadha, Mohak Jaswal, Gomit Chopra, and Vikrant Chhoker, and later in swoops another 12 persons were nabbed in connection with the same case.