Aryan Khan, 23, was sent to the Arthur Road Jail after being placed underjudicial custody.
Mumbai:
Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan has been shifted to a common cell after testing negative for COVID-19, the superintendent at Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail where he is lodged following his arrest in the drugs-on-cruise case, said on Thursday. Along with Aryan Khan, five other men who were arrested in the case too have been shifted out of the quarantine barrack in the jail, the official said.
“Aryan Khan and five others shifted to the common cell from quarantine barrack in the jail after their Covid report came negative,” Nitin Waychal, superintendent of Arthur Road Jail said.
Aryan Khan, 23, was sent to the Arthur Road Jail after being placed under judicial custody. A Mumbai court will hear his bail plea today – the third since his arrest almost two weeks ago.
The Narcotics Control Bureau or NCB has alleged that Aryan Khan – named Accused No. 1 – sourced drugs and was in touch with “some persons abroad who appear to be a part of an International Drug Network for illicit procurement of drugs”.
“WhatsApp chats reveal the accused was in touch with a foreign national for bulk quantity of hard drugs,” the anti-drugs agency said, adding that the probe so far has revealed his role in the conspiracy.
All those arrested “are inextricably connected with each other” and “it is not possible to dissect the role, involvement of one accused from that of the other”, said the NCB. “The ingredients of conspiracy are clear and evident,” said the agency, adding that “one of the applicants cannot be considered in isolation”.
Aryan Khan’s defence team has denied the allegation, saying that he was “not even on the cruise” raided by anti-drugs officers, had no cash to buy drugs, and didn’t have drugs on him.
Amit Desai, representing Shah Rukh Khan’s son, said the NCB’s raid started when he had not even checked into the cruise and that he had neither used drugs nor was anything found on him.
“The allegation of illicit trafficking is inherently absurd. This boy who has nothing, he was not even on the vessel. It is an absurd and false allegation,” he said.
Aryan Khan was arrested hours after the anti-drugs agency’s officers raided a Mumbai cruise ship party in disguise on October 2. Seven others, including his friend Arbaaz Merchant (Accused no 2), were arrested on October 3.
Aryan’s parents Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan have not spoken on his arrest and the allegations so far. Many in the film industry like Salman Khan, Farah Khan and Hrithik Roshan have come out in the support of the Khans.
