Arbaaz Merchant – one of 14 accused in the Mumbai drugs-on-cruise case – told the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) he had been warned against bringing drugs to the party on board the yacht Cordelia, news agency said on Saturday. Merchant told an NCB team he had been cautioned by Aryan Khan, who told him ‘no drugs should be brought… as NCB is very active’.
Sanjay Kumar Singh, the NCB’s deputy director-general (operations) told news agency the ‘basic premise’ of the case – that Arbaaz Merchant was carrying drugs for Aryan Khand – was found to be ‘fallacious’. “His (Aryan Khan’s) friend Arbaaz Merchant denied that he carried drugs for Aryan Khan. In fact, he told the SIT that Aryan Khan had told him that no drugs should be brought on the cruise as NCB was very active,” Singh told news agency.
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan Khan was seen as a key accused in the case but was given a clean chit yesterday after the NCB’s SIT found no evidence against him.
The NCB clean chit for Aryan Khan was based on five factors, Singh told news agency on Friday. These included WhatsApp chats that courts found did not link Aryan Khan to the drugs case, lack of video records of the raid on Cordelia on October 2 last year, and the fact that a key witness – Prabhakar Sail – was made to sign blank papers.
Aryan Khan had been arrested October 3 and spent nearly a month in jail, only getting bail on October 28 and being released on October 30.
NCB director-general SN Pradhan told news agency it was a case of ‘underwhelming evidence’ (against Aryan Khan) as compared to the golden principle of gathering ‘overwhelming evidence’ against the accused. The NCB earlier said it had applied ‘the touchstone of the principle of proof beyond reasonable doubt’ while re-examining the case.
However, while Aryan Khan has been given a clean chit, Arbaaz Merchant is one of 14 named in the eventual chargesheet by the NCB.
The others are Vikrant Chokkar, Mohak Jaswal, Ishmeet S Chadha, Gomit Chopra, Abdul Kadar Shaikh, Shreyas Surendra Nair, Manish Rajgarhia, Chinedu Igwe, Shivraj R Harijan, Nupur Satija, Okoro Uzeoma, Mummun Dhamecha and Aachit Kumar.
An NCB team – led by Sameer Wankhede, a former senior officer now reportedly facing action over errors in the investigation process – busted an alleged drugs party onboard Cordelia – a yacht on its way to Goa. Eight persons were arrested initially, including Aryan Khan and Arbaaz Merchant. Both were granted bail by the Bombay High Court last year.