Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has granted bail to Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchantt and Munmun Dhamecha. The 3 were arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) following a raid on board a luxury cruise off the coast of Mumbai and were in jail since October 8th. The High Court stated that it will pronounce a detailed order with reasons on Friday, October 29th. During Thursday’s hearing, ASG Anil Singh, representing the NCB, said that Aryan isn’t a ‘first-time offender’ and has been consuming drugs for the past few years. The NCB further said that a liberal approach for bail cannot be taken in NDPS cases.
Aryan, through his lawyers, had stated that no drugs were found on him. “They are saying we haven’t tested for consumption. Where is the question of testing when they haven’t consumed it? They were found in possession. It is our case that Aryan Khan was found in conscious possession of the drug”, Singh told the High Court. Singh also said that multiple drugs were found from 8 people when they were apprehended. “When I say conspiracy, I calculate drugs of all persons, and then it comes to that, the cumulative drug quantity was of commercial quantity,” he added.
On the other hand, Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Aryan Khan, said that nothing was recovered from his client, yet he was being charged with ‘commercial quantity through conspiracy’. Referring to the WhatsApp chats that have been recovered by the agency, Singh said they have a 65B certificate under the Evidence Act. When asked by the court as to what the basis was for saying that Aryan tried to deal with commercial quantities Singh replied, “The WhatsApp chat will show he made an attempt to deal with commercial quantity”.