New Delhi: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Friday gave clean shit to Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, in the Mumbai cruise ship drugs bust case.
Khan, along with five others, were not been named in the charge sheet filed by the NCB before a special NDPS court in Mumbai.
The NCB has filed a 6,000-page charge sheet, naming 14 accused while the names of six, including Khan and Mohak, have been dropped due to lack of evidence.
The charge sheet said Aryan had not been found in possession of any drugs.
Sequence of events:
October 2, 2021: The NCB during a raid at cruise ship from Mumbai to Goa recovered cocaine, charas, MDMA pills and MD.
October 3: The anti-narcotic agency arrested Aryan Khan along with his friend Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha. Aryan was “Accused Number 1” in the case in which 20 people were arrested.
October 4: NCB claimed that texts were found on Aryan Khan’s phone point to international drug trafficking. The court grants NCB permission to keep the accused in custody until October 7.
October 7: The court rejected the agency’s request for additional custody. Aryan Khan moved bail petition.
October 8: Aryan’s bail plea rejected.
October 9: Aryan Khan sought bail in a holiday sessions court. He claimed he was wrongfully accused and that no narcotics were found on him.
October 11: Aryan Khan’s lawyers requested an expedited hearing on his bail plea. NCB was given time till October 13 to respond to the court’s request.
October 13: The bail petition was heard by a special NDPS court, and was postponed until the next day.
October 14: Special NDPS court postponed its decision on the bail plea until October 20.
October 20: An 18-page order issued by the special NDPS court rejected Aryan Khan’s bail plea.
October 26: The bail petitions filed by Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant, and Munmun Dhamecha were heard by the Bombay High Court.
October 28: The Bombay High Court granted Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant, and Munmun Dhamecha bail on certain terms.
November 2021: Till now, the case was being probed by the NCB, Mumbai zone. The zonal head was Sameer Wankhede. In November, a special investigation team led by Sanjay Kumar Singh, deputy director-general of the NCB headquarters in Delhi, took over the case.
December 2021: Sameer Wankhede’s term ends. As the case is with SIT Delhi, Aryan Khan got relief from his weekly appearances before the NCB Mumbai office.
March 2022: SIT sought more time to file chargesheets, and the NDPS court granted the agency 60 days’ time.
April 2022: Prabhakar Sail, a key witness, dieed of a heart attack. He was the one who alleged that a monetary arrangement had been made inside NCB to arrest Aryan Khan. Sail claimed to be the bodyguard of NCB witness KP Gosavi and said that when Aryan Khan was detained, Gosavi discussed a Rs 25 crore pay-off arrangement with Sail.
May 27, 2022: The NCB filed a chargesheet, in which Aryan Khan was given a clean chit.