According to multiple media reports, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has found no evidence that Aryan Khan, the son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, was part of a larger drugs conspiracy or an international drugs trafficking syndicate. The SIT also revealed that there were several irregularities in the raid on the yacht Cordelia during which Aryan Khan was arrested.
As per some of the key findings of the SIT, shared by officials with English daily Hindustan Times, Aryan Khan was never in possession of drugs hence there was no need to take his phone and check his chats; the chats do not suggest Khan was part of any international syndicate; the raid was not video-recorded as mandated by the NCB manual; and the drugs recovered from multiple accused arrested in the case shown as single recovery.
According to one of the officials, the SIT probe is not complete and could take a few months before it is submitted to NCB Director General S N Pradhan. Hindustan Times also reported that a legal opinion will be taken before the final decision, particularly on the aspect whether Khan can be charged for consumption even though he was not carrying any drugs.
The revelations come at a time when Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik, who had ran a long campaign against NCB and its zonal director Sameer Wankhede over the Aryan Khan case, has been arrested by ED in a money laundering case. Malik, back then, had raised series of allegations against the anti-drugs agency and its top officer including pre-planned to conspiracy to defame the bollywood star’s son.
On the night of October 2 last year, Wankhede led a team of officers and some witnesses to raid a cruise ship, Cordelia, at International Cruise Terminal at Green Gate in Mumbai. NCB seized 13 grams of cocaine, five grams of mephedrone, 21 grams of marijuana, 22 pills of MDMA (Ecstasy), and ₹1.33 lakh in cash from cruise vessel.
The officials said that the initial findings by the SIT corroborate the observations by Bombay high court, which granted bail to Khan on October 28 last year while saying that “there was no evidence to suggest existence of any conspiracy”.
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.
