Satish Maneshinde, Aryan Khan’s lawyer, told the court that his client comes from a respected family, has roots in the community, and will not flee. Maneshinde also cited a number of previous decisions in support of Aryan Khan’s bail.
A court in Mumbai denied Aryan Khan, Arbaz Merchant, and Munmun Dhamecha’s bail plea in connection with a narcotics case. Last Monday, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) searched a cruise liner and found narcotics, leading to their detention.
The plea was denied by Metropolitan Magistrate RM Nerlikar, who stated that it was not maintainable, implying that the forum used to request bail was wrong.
Khan’s lawyer, Satish Maneshinde, told the court that his client comes from a respected family, has roots in the community, and will not flee. Maneshinde also cited a number of previous decisions in support of Aryan Khan’s bail.
He also disputed the NCB’s belief that if Aryan is freed on bond, he will tamper with the evidence. “You can’t assume that just because someone comes from a wealthy background that he will tamper with evidence. There are persons on the streets who have committed far more severe crimes “Maneshinde said. On behalf of Aryan Khan, he said, “I have never used my influence.”
He further stated that no drugs were discovered in Aryan’s possession and that he was detained solely on the basis of WhatsApp conversations.
A Mumbai court sentenced Khan and others to 14 days in judicial detention on Thursday, rejecting the NCB’s request for a remand, which it claimed was necessary to confront him with those detained in the case. They were arrested and sent to the Mumbai Arthur Road Jail.
After an NCB operation on a cruise ship on October 2, when the agency discovered narcotics, the 23-year-old was detained together with Merchant, Dhamecha, and others. They were apprehended the next day after being held during the raid on Saturday.
Khan and others had submitted bail petitions immediately following a court decision on Thursday, but the court scheduled the pleas for hearing on Friday at the request of additional solicitor general Anil Singh, who wanted to give the agency time to respond to the release applications.
After authorities recovered 13 gm of cocaine, 21 gm of charas (hashish), 22 tablets of MDMA (ecstasy), 5 mg MD, and $1.33 lakh in cash from the cruise ship, they were all arrested under sections 8C, 20B, 27 read with 35 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.
Section 8C of the NDPS Act prohibits the production, manufacture, possession, sale, purchase, transport, warehouse, use, consume, import inter-State, export inter-State, import into India, export from India, or tranship any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance, while Section 20B punishes the production, manufacture, possession, sale, purchase, transportation, imports inter-State, exports inter-State, import into India, export from India, or tranship any narc
Meanwhile, NCB Mumbai Director Sameer Wankhede announced on Thursday that 18 individuals had been detained in the case, including a Nigerian national. He went on to say that the Nigerian guy was caught with 40 Ecstasy tablets in his possession.
