The Bombay High Court on Wednesday rejected an application seeking pre-arrest bail filed by Samville D'Souza, whose name had cropped up in connection with allegations of pay-off in the case of drug seizure in which Aryan Khan, actor Shah Rukh Khan's son, was arrested.
You aren't dealing with a normal, civilised, law. The NDPS Act, in its preconditions for bail, and insistence on evidence of innocence rather than guilt, is worse than UAPA. Imagine yourself or your child at the other end of this, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The Indian Coast Guard has seized 1,500 kg of heroin.
Dnyandev Wankhede, Sameer's father, has sought damages of Rs 1.25 crore from Malik and an order restraining him from making further false or incorrect statements against the Wankhede family.
Malik said he did not buy any property from anyone who is linked to the underworld or is a convict in a bomb blast case. He said by trying to link him with the underworld and bomb blast convicts, Fadnavis is maligning his image.
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'.
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.
As the Bollywood divas set out from their residences, media vehicles tried to chase them to catch elusive photographs and video footage up close.
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday said that it seems that Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik has "wilfully breached" his undertaking given to the HC last month on not making any public statements against Narcotics Control Bureau's Mumbai unit chief Sameer Wankhede and his family members.
Rajput's manager Samuel Miranda and cook Dipesh Sawant used to collect the contraband and make `joints' (marijuana cigarettes) for the deceased actor, a NCB officer claimed.
Hearing PILs about "media trial" in the case, the court remarked that the media has become "polarised".
Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik on Thursday accused NCB's zonal director Sameer Wankhede and his family of obtaining two separate certificates of his mother following her death in 2015, each mentioning her as Muslim and Hindu.
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.
'When she left on June 8 after some kind of fight or break-up she did not think Sushant would die.' 'She did not think his family after his death would level such horrible accusations against her.' 'She did not think three agencies would be tasked to prove her to a bad woman.'
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.
Rakul, 29, was seen entering the NCB guest house in Colaba around 10.30 am and left after four hours.
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 trigger was a Delhi-based TV journalist, who is in Mumbai to cover the NCB probe, coming "in the frame" of the camera of another national news channel.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), which is probing an alleged Bollywood-drugs nexus, has summoned actors Deepika Padukone, Shraddha Kapoor, Sara Ali Khan and Rakul Preet Singh for questioning, an official said on Wednesday.
The income tax department will share PAN and bank account details of any entity with 10 investigative and intelligence agencies, including the CBI and NIA, under the integrated counter-terrorism platform NATGRID, according to an official order.
While granting him bail on December 2, special NDPS court judge G B Gurao observed that the ingredient of Section 27-A of the NDPS Act does not apply to Showik's case.
More than 300 coastal security exercises have been conducted with state authorities post the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack to beef up the country's security, Indian Coast Guard Director General K Natarajan said on Thursday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called for the setting up of a high-power police technology mission under the leadership of the Union home minister to adopt future technologies for grassroot policing requirements.
"Mobile phones of Deepika Padukone, Shraddha Kapoor, Sara Ali Khan, Rakul Preet Singh, Karishma Prakash, Simone Khambatta and Jaya Shah have been seized," an NCB official said.
'We have reached a new low.'
Majithia had moved a court on Thursday after the case was registered and a lookout circular issued against him.
The complainant alleged that Malik made "false and derogatory" remarks against him and his family members.
"There is no evidence of consumption, no recovery of drugs and absolutely no evidence to show his participation in this so-called conspiracy and abetment as alleged by the NCB," Rohatgi said while arguing for Aryan Khan's bail.
She called for converting the "bigde Nawab energy into Sudhre Nawab" and said questions should be asked to "bigde Nawab's "boss or super boss".
Bengali sub-nationalism is slowly emerging as a rallying cry ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections due next year.
Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, walked out of the Arthur Road prison, after 22 days in the central Mumbai facility following his arrest during a drug raid on a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast.
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.
'Any person who wants to enter this service should have a single object of serving the public irrespective of hindrances.'
In a reversal of its two-year-old decision to avoid from the purview of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, the finance ministry, which administers the Act, has once again proposed compulsory registration of all medicine manufacturers and dealers that handle drugs that contain narcotic and psychotropic substances before the Central Bureau of Narcotics (CBN). CBN comes under the revenue department of the ministry.
NCP leader Nawab Malik had levelled a string of allegations against the NCB official, including illegal phone tapping.
'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.
Delhi's power circles can expect a surprise when a not-so-known officer is appointed to head the CBI.
The Bombay high court on Monday quashed and set aside the order of a single bench of the HC that had refused to restrain Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik from making public statements against the Narcotics Control Bureau's zonal director Sameer Wankhede and his family.
The ECI on Wednesday directed all petrol pump dealers and other agencies to remove hoardings advertising central government schemes that carry photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the premises of the facilities within 72 hours, an official said in Kolkata.
