The Bombay high court had on Thursday granted bail to Merchant and Dhamecha along with their co-accused Aryan Khan, the son of actor Shah Rukh Khan.
'Aryan Khan has ultimately been released on bail by Bombay HC. No possession, no evidence, no consumption, no conspiracy, right from the first moment when he was detained on Oct 2! Satyamev Jayate,' the team said.
Jail officials said he was happy to receive the information about getting bail and also expressed his gratitude to the prison staff.
The Bombay high court on Thursday said it would hear on October 26 the bail plea filed by Aryan Khan, son of superstar Shah Rukh Khan, in connection with a case of seizure of banned drugs on board a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast.
After hearing extensive arguments of the investigating agency NCB and defense lawyers on Thursday, special judge V V Patil posted the matter for orders on October 20.
Aryan Khan, the son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, approached the Bombay High Court on Wednesday, seeking bail in connection with the case of seizure of banned drugs aboard a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast.
Besides Khan, the bail application of other accused Nupur Satija and Munmun Dhamecha will also be heard on Wednesday.
Opposing the NCB's remand extension plea, Aryan Khan's lawyer Satish Maneshinde said his client was not connected with any of the other accused.
A metropolitan magistrate in Mumbai on Friday denied bail to Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, and two others in a case pertaining to the alleged seizure of banned drugs from a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast.
Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan has been questioned and detained by the Narcotics Control Bureau and arrested.
'Even if you are not in possession (of drugs) but you are part of the conspiracy, you are punishable under the same section of the law. Aryan Khan was aware that Arbaaz was in possession. Charas was for smoking and it was for the consumption of both, though it was with Arbaaz physically,' ASG Anil Singh told the HC.
The NCB also found some documents and some material, suspected to be drugs, after an over six-hour-long search onboard the ship, the official said, without divulging any further details.
They were earlier lodged at the quarantine barrack of the Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai.
The HC had granted bail to Aryan Khan, 25 days after he was arrested during a drug raid on a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast.
NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede should be suspended following the court's findings, he said.
The timeline of the 'drugs on cruise' case in which Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, was given a clean chit by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Friday.
The anti-drug agency's SIT on Sunday asked Aryan Khan to appear before it the same day, the NCB official said.
"We won't give special treatment for anyone. The law is the same for all. The deadline for receiving the bail papers was 5.30 pm. That has passed. He won't be released today," a senior jail official said.
The Narcotic Control Bureau, which had told the court on Wednesday that Khan was involved in the conspiracy, illicit drug trafficking as well as its procurement and consumption, today claimed that 'evidence reveal Khan frequently took contraband substances'.
Some of the persons accused in the drugs-on-cruise case have told the Narcotics Control Bureau that they started consuming drugs to overcome depression as well as academic and work pressure.
The court said that perusal of the WhatsApp chats extracted from the phone of Aryan Khan shows that nothing objectionable was noticed to suggest that he, Merchant and Dhamecha along with other accused in the case have hatched a conspiracy of committing the offence in question.
Special Judge V V Patil, designated to hear cases related to the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, rejected the bail pleas of Aryan Khan, his friend Arbaaz Merchant and fashion model Munmun Dhamecha.
With this, the anti-drugs agency has so far arrested 17 people in the case, including Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan, and some "high-profile organisers" belonging to a Delhi-based event management company.
This was Aryan Khan's first appearance at the NCB office after his release from the Arthur Road prison on October 30 following the bail granted by the Bombay high court.
A Mumbai resident has filed a public interest litigation in the Bombay high court, seeking directions to Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik to refrain from making any comments against the NCB.
The PIL has also sought a direction to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to frame the national witness protection scheme as recommended in various reports of the Law Commission.
Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, was on Thursday granted bail by the Bombay high court, 25 days after his arrest by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the case of seizure of banned drugs aboard a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast earlier this month, a drugs bust that triggered a series of controversies and put the central agency and its officials under the spotlight.
In his appeal in the HC against the special court order, Aryan Khan said the Narcotics Control Bureau's "interpretation and misinterpretation" of the WhatsApp chats collected from his mobile phone was "wrong and unjustified".
Even as the Bombay high court has granted bail to actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan, who was arrested in the drugs-on-cruise case, his lawyers will have to wait till they get the high court's operative order for taking further steps towards securing his release from jail.
In the 15-page order, the details of which were made available on Saturday, the ACMM said 'this court ceases its jurisdiction to entertain the applications for bail' considering section 36A and the fact that all three were held for one crime under various provisions of the NDPS Act for which the prescribed punishment was more than three years.
Senior counsel Amit Desai, appearing for Aryan Khan, termed the NCB's contention as 'inherently absurd' and argued that when there was no recovery of drugs from him, then he should not be penalised at the stage of granting bail.
The clean chit to Aryan Khan and five others by the Narcotics Control Bureau on Friday has once again brought the central agency's former zonal director Sameer Wankhede under the spotlight.
Custody cannot be granted on vague grounds, noted a magistrate court on Thursday while rejecting the NCB's plea seeking further remand of Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, and seven others arrested in a case pertaining to alleged seizure of banned drugs aboard a cruise ship here.
The NCB, which got the remand of Aryan Khan and the other eight accused from the court till Thursday, also claimed that in the WhatsApp chats he is discussing modes of payment to be done for procurement (of drugs) and that several code names are being used.
The court, in its order, noted that the investigation in the case was of prime importance and considering this aspect, the further presence of the accused before the NCB was necessary.
Besides Aryan Khan, the arrested accused are identified as Munmun Dhamecha, Arbaaz Merchant, Ismeet Singh, Mohak Jaswal, Gomit Chopra, Nupur Sarika, and Vikrant Chhokar.
The court in its detailed order also raised questions on the veracity of the NCB's panchnama records.
A special court here on Wednesday denied bail to Aryan Khan, the son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, observing that 'on the face of it', he was indulging in "illicit drug activities on a regular basis".
'Today we are standing outside Mannat and we finally feel like jannat (heaven).'
The NCB spoke about Aryan Khan, Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan's son, and others of being accused of a conspiracy, but it never pressed that charge officially following their arrest in a drugs case, their lawyer told the Bombay High Court during bail hearing on Wednesday.
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