Aryan Khan’s bail plea to be heard by Bombay HC on Oct 26; Shah Rukh Khan meets son in jail

Aryan Khan’s advocate Satish Maneshinde mentioned the plea before a single bench of Justice N W Sambre, seeking urgent hearing on Friday. Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), however, sought time till next week. Justice Sambre then posted the plea for hearing on October 26. On that day, the court will also hear the bail plea filed by co-accused Munmun Dhamecha.

Denying bail to Aryan, a special NDPS court on Wednesday said that since Arbaaz Merchant, who was with Aryan, was found with contraband and Khan knew about it, this amounted to “conscious possession”. Aryan had been apprehended with his friend Merchant at the international cruise terminal in Mumbai on October 2, ahead of boarding a luxury liner that was allegedly to hold a rave party. While no drugs were found on Aryan, 6 grams of charas were allegedly seized from Merchant.

While Aryan had no previous antecedents, the court said, his chats showed he was indulging in “illicit drug activities of narcotic substances on a regular basis”. While the defence lawyers said there was nothing to connect Aryan with the others arrested in the case, the court said all the accused are “connected in the same thread”. It said that at this stage the role of the accused cannot be isolated from one another.

Aryan Khan was arrested on October 3 by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) for alleged conspiracy, possession, consumption, purchase and trafficking of drugs.

Meanwhile, actor Shah Rukh Khan reached the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai to meet his son Aryan. The actor reached the prison at around 9 am and left at 9.35 am, the official said. He met his son for about 10 minutes, according to sources. This is the first time Shah Rukh was seen in public after Aryan’s arrest.

So far, family members of the prisoners were not being allowed to visit the jail in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. The prison authorities started allowing the family members of prisoners to visit them from Thursday morning, the official said.