Aryan moves HC, seeks relaxation in bail terms
Actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan on Friday moved the Bombay high court seeking relaxation in one of his bail conditions that required him to visit the Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) office every week, people familiar with the matter said.
Aryan was arrested by NCB on October 3, a day after the agency raided a cruise ship docked off the Mumbai coast.
The NCB said that 13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams of mephedrone, 21 grams of charas, 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy), and ₹1.33 lakh in cash were recovered from the ship and claimed that Aryan was linked to international drug cartels. The Bombay high court granted the 24–year-old bail on October 28 on 14 conditions, including surrendering of passport and appearing at the NCB office every week.
In his application, Aryan argued that since the case has been transferred to a Special Investigation Team of Delhi NCB, he should be exempted from appearing before the anti-drug agency’s office in Mumbai, people aware of the matter said.
In its bail order, the court specified that the NCB shall be entitled to move the special NDPS court in Mumbai for cancellation of the bail if any of them violated any of the 14 conditions.
The application also stated that Aryan is pursued by the media whenever he goes to mark his attendance at the NCB office and thus needs to be accompanied by a number of police personnel to maintain law and order, those aware of the matter said.
The high-profile case got shrouded in controversy when a key NCB witness alleged that the agency’s Mumbai zonal chief Sameer Wankhede was part of a ₹25 crore extortion racket targeting Aryan.
The witness, Prabhakar Sail, also alleged that he was forced to sign sheets of blank paper, prompting the anti-drug agency to set up a vigilance inquiry into Wankhede.
As delays mounted, experts doubted whether protocol was breached during the raid – private individuals like Sail’s employer Kiran Gosavi, who was arrested in Pune on extortion charges, were seen assisting officials and walking into the Narcotics Control Bureau office despite holding no official position in any law enforcement agency.