India / Aryan to stay in jail for another week as court reserves order, says it's busy

Mumbai: Aryan Khan will have to remain in jail till next Wednesday as the special NDPS court which was hearing the bail plea of Shah Rukh Khan's son in connection with the cruise rave party reserved its order for October 20, almost a week from now. The bail plea came up for hearing on Wednesday but as NCB counsel Anil Singh could not finish his argument on Wednesday, the hearing resumed on Thursday. As the court heard both the parties, it reserved the order for October 20, which means Aryan Khan will have to spend this week too in judicial custody. Aryan has now completed his isolation period in Arthur Road jail and has now been moved with other inmates.

What happened during Thursday's hearing

The NCB opposed Aryan Khan's bail plea and said that Aryan Khan can't be granted bail as bail has nothing to do with the quantity of drugs recovered from him. NCB counsel Anil Singh said Aryan is a regular consumer of drugs, his WhatsApp interaction has revealed. The fact that he was not found with drugs is immaterial as there are some provisions in the NDPS Act where the recovery of drugs is not at all crucial, he said. 

"Innocent until proven guilty doesn't apply in the cases of NDPS offences. In the NDPS Act, the presumption is of culpable a mental state, and it is for the accused to prove that he was not in possession during the trial," Singh said.

He also submitted that the NCB will ultimately find out how all the arrested are connected to each other and will establish a case of conspiracy. "This isn't a case of bail at this state. It can be considered at an appropriate stage," he said.

Countering NCB's arguments regarding Aryan Khan's WhatsApp chat, his lawyer Amit Desai said the context of the WhatsApp chats is important as casual conversations between friends on WhatsApp may appear suspicious. He also said that Aryan Khan was overseas for a while where a lot of these things are legitimate.

Regarding a WhatsApp chat ‘Let’s have a blast' apparently exchanged between Aryan Khan and Arbaaz Merchant, Amit Desai said, “Today's generation has a means of communication, which is English...not the Queen's English…it's sometimes what the older generation will call torture. The way they communicate is very different. But by no stretch of the imagination is this boy involved in illicit international drug trafficking.”