Indian court extends Aryan Khan’s NCB custody till October 7

The 23-year-old's chats disclosed his conversations with unknown persons about buying 'charas'.

A metropolitan magistrate court on Monday has extended the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) custody of Aryan Khan, son of superstar Shah Rukh Khan, along with two others arrested, till October 7.

The additional chief metropolitan magistrate RM Nerlikar extended the NCB custody of the three, in view of the fact that the agency recovered intermediate quantity of drugs from one of them, whom Aryan accompanied, reported Hindustan Times. The court also acknowledged that the investigation was at a preliminary and crucial stage.

The two others arrested with him are Arbaaz Merchant, a resident of Bandra and a friend of Aryan, along with Munmun Dhamecha, a fashion designer from Madhya Pradesh.

Additional solicitor general (ASG) Anil Singh and advocate Advait Sethna, who appeared for NCB, informed that the agency had seized Aryan’s mobile phone and found several chats which showed his connection with drug dealers. “It is necessary to confront all accused in the custodial remand,” Singh asserted. Aryan’s chats also showed the nexus, containing discussions of cash transactions, including international transactions.

The ASG showed some chats to the court to highlight how Aryan had conversations with unknown persons about buying charas and the NCB is yet to find out who those unknown persons were.

However, Advocate Satish Maneshinde, appearing for Aryan, refuted the appeal for extension of custody by contending that Aryan’s chats alone can’t prove he was involved in any drug sale, purchase or consumption. And since nothing incriminating was recovered from him, he shouldn’t kept in custody any further. He argued that the 23-year-old only knows Merchant, from whom 6 grams of charas has been allegedly seized.

On Saturday night – acting on a specific tip-off – NCB had raided a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast that was waiting to set sail to Goa, busting a party where drugs were allegedly being used. Following this, on Sunday afternoon, the agency arrested Aryan – SRK and Gauri Khan’s eldest son – for alleged possession and consumption of illegal drugs.

At about 1:30pm Khan, Merchant and Dhamecha were taken to JJ Hospital for a medical checkup, in which doctors also took their swabs for RTPCR tests. They were taken back to the NCB office and produced before the Esplanade court around 3:15pm, according to the outlet.

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