Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, has been given clean chit in the Mumbai cruise ship drugs bust case. Khan, along with five others, have not been named in the chargesheet filed by the Narcotics Control Bureau before a special NDPS court in Mumbai.
The anti-drugs agency has filed a 6,000-page chargesheet, naming 14 accused while names of six, including Khan and Mohak, have been dropped due to lack of evidence.
The chargesheet said Aryan had not been found in possession of any drugs. “Based on an input NCB Mumbai on 02.10.2021, intercepted Vikrant, Ishmeet, Arbaaz, Aryan and Gomit at International Port Terminal, MbPT and Nupur, Mohak and Munmun at the Cordelia Cruise. All the accused persons were found in possession of narcotics except Aryan and Mohak,” said a press release by the agency.
“A complaint against 14 persons under various sections of the NDPS Act is being filed. Complaint against rest six persons is not being filed due to a lack of evidence,” it added.
In April this year, the special NDPS court had granted the NCB’s SIT an additional 60 days to submit the chargesheet, after the agency claimed that it found a progress in the case. The deadline was scheduled to end on May 29.
Currently, of the 20 accused arrested in the case, 18, including Aryan, are out on bail. Two are still behind bars. In March this year, the NCB had denied reports that it will not charge Aryan in the case, as no evidence has been found against him.
After several allegations were made into the probe carried out by former NCB Mumbai Zonal Unit director Sameer Wankhede, the Cordelia case, along with five others, was transferred to a SIT headed by Sanjay Singh.
Wankhede had led a team of NCB officers and some witnesses on the night of October 2, last year, to raid cruise ship Cordelia at International Cruise Terminal at Green Gate in Mumbai. The NCB had seized 13 gm of cocaine, five gm of mephedrone, 21 gm of marijuana, 22 pills of MDMA (Ecstasy) and Rs 1.33 lakh in cash from the cruise vessel.
