Mumbai: Two of the 20 accused in Mumbai’s drugs-on-cruise case, Manish Rajgaria and Avin Sahu, got bail from the special court hearing the case on Tuesday. The bail plea of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan is pending before the Bombay High Court, which adjourned the hearing on it. The hearing will continue today.
Manish Rajgaria, accused number 11 in the case, was arrested in possession of 2.4 grams of ganja. He was released with a bond amount of ₹ 50,000. Avin Sahu was accused of consuming contraband twice. They were arrested as the cruise ship returned to Mumbai.
Unlike the case of Aryan Khan, there was no WhatsApp or iMessage chats in the case of Manish Rajgaria, his lawyer argued. His lawyer, Ajay Dubey, had also argued that there was no progress in the investigation against him. The detailed order in the matter is awaited.
Avin Sahu’s lawyer Sana Ali Khan told NDTV, “I have been able to show the difference between the cases of the other accused and my client.”
Denied bail twice before, Aryan Khan has been lodged at a jail in Mumbai for over 20 days.
While denying him bail last week, the court said he knew about charas hidden in his friend Arbaaz Merchant’s shoe, which amounted to “conscious possession”.
Former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, who argued for Aryan Khan, said the lower court erroneously arrived at the conclusion about conscious possession as “Aryan Khan had no control over Arbaaz Merchant and Arbaaz was not an employee of Aryan over whom he had control — which is a key criteria in determining conscious possession”.
Mr Rohatgi argued that no drugs were recovered from Aryan Khan’s possession and there was no consumption. So there was “no need to arrest” him, said the senior lawyer.
The case against him, Mr Rohatgi said, was based on old WhatsApp chats that had nothing to do with the cruise ship raid and so, was irrelevant.
The former Attorney General also argued that the case against him is drawing public attention because of the celebrity status of his parents – megastar Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan.
The anti-drugs agency Narcotics Control Bureau has contended that the WhatsApp and iMessage chats of Aryan Khan were incriminating and it was essential to question him to track the international drug cartel involved.
