New Delhi: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has given a clean chit to Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan in a drug charge for which he spent nearly a month in jail last year.
The NCB Friday also cleared five other accused — of the total 20 arrested — after raids on the Goa-bound cruise ship Cordelia in October.
Filed before a special judge, the NCB’s chargesheet said the agency would carry on the case against 14 of the 20 accused.
Apart from Aryan, the others let off by the NCB’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) were Avin Shahu, Gopalji Anand, Samir Saighan, Bhaskar Aroda and Manav Singha.
A media release by the drug agency said: “SIT carried out its investigation in objective manner. The touchstone of the principle of proof beyond reasonable doubt has been applied. Based on the investigation carried out by SIT, a complaint against 14 persons under various sections of NDPS Act is being filed. Complaint against rest 6 persons is not being filed due to lack of sufficient evidence.”
Senior advocate Amit Desai, who appeared for Aryan, told legal website Bar & Bench: “Obviously glad that the legal principles have been rightly applied when deciding the question of filing of the complaint. Also glad that the department has had the courage and objectivity to do the right thing. Else sometimes one sees that once an arrest occurs a charge sheet follows as a matter of course. It is such situations which must make us ponder over the use of the power of arrest.”
Aryan was arrested on October 3 by the NCB from the terminal of a cruise ship en route to Goa from Mumbai.
The drug agency had alleged it seized 13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams of mephedrone MD, 21 gram charas and 22 pills of MDMA ecstasy in the raid on the ship.
He was arrested under Sections 8(c), 20(b), 27, 28, 29 and 35 of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Aryan was granted bail by the Bombay High Court on 28 October.
In its detailed order, the High Court found no evidence against Aryan to show that he had “conspired to commit an offence”. The court said WhatsApp chats on his phone found “nothing objectionable”.
The court also noted that Aryan was not found in possession of any objectionable substance and this fact “had not been disputed”.
The judges subsequently ruled that the confessional statement of Aryan, recorded by the NCB, could only be considered for investigation purposes and not used as a tool to infer that he committed any offence under the NDPS Act.
“There is hardly any positive evidence on record to convince this court that all the accused persons with common intention agreed to commit unlawful acts,” the court said.
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