MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted Aryan Khan, the 23-year-old son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, bail three weeks after he was arrested in connection with a drug case on October 3, according to Indian media.
A single bench of Justice N W Sambre also granted bail to his co-accused, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, have also been granted bail, however, none of them will be released today. The accused are currently lodged in Arthur Road Jail.
According to Indian media, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had opposed Aryan’s bail plea and accused him of being a “regular consumer of drugs” as well as involved in illicit drug trafficking. They also argued that he was in “conscious possession of contraband”.
“There is a case that a person might not have consumed the drug, but if he’s in possession of it, he can be booked under NDPS Act. Accused Aryan was found in conscious possession of contraband,” Indian media quoted NCB counsel as saying.
Senior advocate and former attorney general of India Mukul Rohatgi, appearing on behalf of Aryan, had concluded his arguments on Tuesday. Rohatgi called his arrest “arbitrary”, adding that the NCB had made no recovery from the 23-year-old, nor conducted a medical examination to show consumption of any narcotic.
He was arrested during an October 2 raid on a cruise ship in Mumbai and charged with possession of narcotics. He was remanded into NCB custody till October 7 and presented in court.
He was presented in court again on October 8, October 14 and October 20 his bail plea was rejected each time. He then finally approached the Bombay High Court and was granted relief after three straight days of hearings.
The NCB said it recovered 13 grams of cocaine, five grams of MD, 21 grams of charas and 22 pills of MDMA, and 133,000 INR during the raid, however, none of the recovered narcotics were in Aryan’s possession.
Aryan received a lot of support from his father’s Bollywood colleagues, including from big stars such as Hrithik Roshan. Several other celebrities also stood up for him and said he was being unfairly targeted.
