The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Friday gave a clean chit to Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, in the drugs-on-cruise case, in which he was arrested last year.
The anti-drugs agency has filed a 6,000-page chargesheet, naming 14 accused, after drugs were found in a raid on a cruise ship off Mumbai in October, according to ndtv.com.
Aryan Khan and his father Shah Rukh Khan are relieved, said senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi, who represented Aryan Khan in court and secured bail for him.
Aryan Khan, 23, who was one of several people arrested, has not been named as an accused. "All the accused persons were found in possession of narcotics except Aryan and Mohak," read a statement by senior NCB officer Sanjay Kumar Singh.
Besides Aryan Khan, 19 other accused were arrested in the case. All the accused, except two, are currently out on bail, reports PTI.
The agency could not find sufficient evidence against Aryan Khan and the five others, Singh said.
In a statement, the NCB said, "Based on an input, NCB Mumbai had on October 2, 2021 intercepted Vikrant, Ishmeet, Arbaaz, Aryan and Gomit at International Port Terminal, Mumbai Port Trust, and Nupur, Mohak and Munmum at the Cordelia Cruise. All the accused persons were found in possession of narcotics except Aryan and Mohak."
"Initially, the case was investigated by NCB Mumbai. Later, an SIT from NCB headquarters in New Delhi headed by Sanjay Kumar Singh, DDG (Operations), was constituted to investigate the case, which was taken over by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on November 11, 2021," the anti-drug agency said.
SIT carried out its investigation in an objective manner, the NCB said. The touchstone of the principle of proof beyond reasonable doubt has been applied. Based on the investigation carried out by the SIT, a complaint against 14 persons under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act is being filed, it said, adding that complaint against the rest six persons is not being filed due to lack of sufficient evidence.
Aryan Khan had spent more than three weeks in jail after he was arrested in the high-profile case that dominated news headlines and polarised social media.
The Narcotic Control Bureau had initially claimed Aryan Khan was a regular user and supplier of drugs. But the charges were denied by him and his lawyers who contended that no drugs were found on him during the raid.
The NCB's arguments were also questioned by a special court hearing the case, which said it could not just rely on WhatsApp messages to make such grave allegations.
The officer in charge of the investigation, Sameer Wankhede, was dropped and faced allegations of deliberately targeting Aryan Khan and even trying to blackmail the accused.
The case was also transferred from a Mumbai-based team of the NCB to a Delhi-based team after irregularities and lapses in the probe emerged.
In March this year, the special court had granted a 60-day extension to the probe agency to file the charge-sheet.
