Meanwhile, senior lawyer Mukul Rohotgi said, Shah Rukh Khan is “very relieved”. The NCB in the chargesheet said no drugs were found on Aryan Khan and that there was no “substantial evidence” to charge him and five others.
Mumbai: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Friday gave a clean chit to Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan in the October 5 Cordelia cruise drugs case. While the agency filed a chargesheet against 14 accused, Aryan and five others were exonerated.
Aryan Khan was arrested on October 3 after a raid on a cruise by NCB. Soon after, he was taken away by the raid team, a selfie taken with him by “independent witness” Kiran Gosavi went viral. Gosavi was later arrested in a cheating case.
Meanwhile, senior lawyer Mukul Rohotgi said, Shah Rukh Khan is “very relieved”. The NCB in the chargesheet said no drugs were found on Aryan Khan and that there was no “substantial evidence” to charge him and five others.
According to a statement released by NCB, the agency has filed a charge sheet against 14 individuals, however, this does not include Aryan. “All the accused persons were found in possession of Narcotics except Aryan (Khan) and Mohak (Jaiswal),” read the note.
Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said the NCB giving a clean chit to Aryan Khan proves Nawab Malik was right when he had said that the case was fake. Malik had criticised the way the raids were conducted and witnesses identified. “Whatever Malik said holds ground. Witnesses had claimed that they were made to sign on blank papers and there were financial transactions involved. Sameer Wankhede is answerable to the people of this country,” he said.
In a press conference after the clean chit to Aryan Khan, NCB Director General S N Pradhan said, “The SIT, which was formed to look into the probe done by our Mumbai NCB team, found irregularities in the investigation. Among the 20 accused, six were not chargesheeted as physical and circumstantial evidence was not found against them. The remaining 14 were named in the chargesheet as corroborative evidence was found against them. As per the Supreme Court, there has to be evidence ‘Beyond Reasonable Doubt’ which was found in the case of the 14 but not in the remaining six accused.”
When asked if the NCB team led by Sameer Wankhede will face action for arresting Aryan Khan, Pradhan said, “I will not immediately blame the team. The SIT is looking into this. Initially, they may have had reasons to arrest but in subsequent part of the investigation, no possession or corroborative evidence was found against him (Aryan) after the arrest.”
