Mumbai HC adjourns hearing on Aryan Khan's bail plea

Wednesday 27th October 2021 07:12 EDT
 

Aryan Khan's jail stay was extended by another day as the hearing on his bail plea in the Bombay High Court was posted for Wednesday. In Tuesday's arguments, former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi argued that Aryan Khan was a "young man" who should be sent to rehab rather than jail. Aryan Khan, the 23-year-old son of Shah Rukh Khan, was arrested on October 3 after a drugs raid on a cruise ship party by Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officers in disguise.

He has been in Mumbai's Arthur Road jail since October 8. His lawyers have repeatedly argued that no drugs were found on him. The special anti-drugs court that denied him bail last week said he knew about charas hidden in his friend Arbaaz Merchant's shoe, and this amounted to "conscious possession".

A five-member team from the vigilance section of the NCB will go to Mumbai to investigate the allegations against Sameer Wankhede, the zonal officer in charge of the drugs on cruise ship case. The agency had ordered a vigilance inquiry into the bribery allegations made against the officer by a man named as a witness in the case. Wankhede is also facing a series of allegations from Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik that range from extortion to illegal phone tapping and cornering quota meant for Scheduled Castes through forged documents.

NCB questions Ananya Pandey; visits SRK home

The NCB earlier questioned actor Chunky Pandey’s actor daughter Ananya Pandey for around four hours and seized her laptop and cell phone. The questioning happened hours after Shah Rukh met his son Aryan inside the ‘mulaqat’ room of Arthur Road jail. Shah Rukh spoke to him for 15 minutes via an intercom.

In another development, an NCB team visited SRK’s bungalow in Bandra in connection with the case. They said they had gone to seek some documents related to the case. NCB deputy director Ashok Mutha Jain clarified there was no raid at his bungalow.

NCB witness surfaces, denies extortion charges

Prabhakar Sail, bodyguard to witness in the drug bust case KP Gosavi, was given police protection by the government a day after he filed an affidavit levelling serious allegations including a payoff to NCB chief Sameer Wankhede. In another development, Gosavi, who had gone into hiding since NCP minister Nawab Malik said he had criminal cases registered against him, surfaced on Monday and denied all allegations, including those of extortion.

Gosavi, who rubbished Sail’s claims as “baseless,” also denied meeting Pooja Dadlani, manager of Shah Rukh, one of the claims made by Sail.

State home minister Dilip Walse Patil said, “We have gone through Sail’s affidavit. He has said he fears for his life. We have given him police protection.” Gosavi, for his part, clarified that the selfie with Aryan Khan that had gone viral after the October 2 raid was taken on the cruise terminal and not at the NCB office. He said he had received information about the drugs racket from a source and had informed the NCB. He said there was a threat to his life.

Gosavi, who claims to run a private detective agency, is one of nine independent witnesses in the case. There are offences of cheating registered against him in Thane and Pune. Pune police had recently issued a lookout circular against him in connection with a 2018 cheating case.


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