The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Sunday arrested Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, and two others in connection with the seizure of banned drugs onboard a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast and booked them under the NDPS Act.
Aryan Khan, Munmun Dhamecha and Arbaaz Merchant were produced before a metropolitan magistrate's court for remand later in the day.
Aryan Khan has been booked under sections 27 (punishment for consumption of any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance), 8C (produce, manufacture, possess, sell or purchase of drugs) and other relevant provisions of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS).
Advocate Satish Maneshinde would be representing Aryan Khan in court.
He and seven others were detained late Saturday night by NCB sleuths after they raided the cruise ship on its way from Mumbai to Goa.
As per the arrest memo of the NCB, 13 grams of cocaine, five gram of MD, 21 grams of charas and 22 pills of Ecstasy and Rs 1.33 lakh was seized after the raid.
Based on a tip-off that a party was scheduled on the ship, an NCB team, led by its zonal director Sameer Wankhede, raided the Goa-bound Cordelia cruise ship on Saturday evening and recovered drugs from some of the passengers, an NCB official said.
"During the operation, the suspects were searched and different drugs were recovered from them, which they had hidden in their clothes, undergarments and purses (by women)," the NCB official said.
Early this morning, the NCB questioned the detainees at its office here, he said.
Apart from Aryan Khan, Munmun Dhamecha, and Arbaz Merchant, others are identified as Nupur Sarika, Ismeet Singh, Mohak Jaswal, Vikrant Chhoker, and Gomit Chopra, the NCB had said.
Meanwhile, the cruise company in a statement on Sunday said it had nothing to do with this incident.
"Cordelia Cruises is in no way, directly or indirectly, connected to this incident. Cordelia Cruises had chartered its ship for a private event to a Delhi-based event management company, Jurgen Bailom, Chief Executive Officer and President, Waterways Leisure Tourism Pvt Ltd said in the statement.
It said Cordelia Cruises is extending our full support and cooperating with the authorities.