India / Aryan may tamper with evidence, we need time to unearth drug racket linked to him: NCB

Mumbai: The lawyers of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s jailed son Aryan on Tuesday filed a counter affidavit in the Bombay High Court stating that the starkid has no connection with the Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) witnesses Prabhakar Sail or his former employer Kiran Gosavi.

Aryan’s affidavit came amid the NCB’s continued opposition to his bail application on grounds that he might tamper with the investigation in the drugs-on-cruise case, which it claimed was part of an international drug racket.

The NCB said the 23-year-old is not just a consumer of drugs, but also involved in illicit drug trafficking. The agency also claimed that Aryan and a woman named Pooja Dadlani, Shah Rukh Khan's manager, are tampering with the evidence and witnesses in the case in an attempt to derail the investigation.

 “There is an international drug racket going on and the agency needs time to unearth it. If given bail, Aryan can affect the investigation, influence the witnesses and tamper with the evidence,” the NCB said when Aryan’s bail plea came up for hearing in the high court during the day. 

Meanwhile, Aryan's affidavit further stated that the applicant is not a party to the ongoing allegations between the NCB’s zonal director and others.

Allegations of extortion have been levelled against the anti-drugs agency, its Mumbai zone director Sameer Wankhede and others in the drugs-on-cruise case in which Aryan and some others were arrested earlier this month.