A Mumbai Special Court under the NDPS Act (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985) said that it will hear the bail application of Aryan Khan on October 13, 2021 in connection to the drugs seized in a luxury cruise.
Special Judge VV Patil granted time to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to file its response till Wednesday (October 13, 2021).
Senior Advocate Amit Desai and Advocate Satish Maneshinde are representing Khan in this case. They further apprised the Court that the NCB had been served electronically and physically on Friday. On the other hand, SPP AM Chimalker appearing for the NCB sought time for one week to file its response after apprising the Court that the investigation is ongoing and that evidence is being collected. This was opposed to by the counsels appearing for Khan.
Amit Desai, representing Aryan Khan said that he was not found in possession of drugs, and that he was only arguing for a date and not bail. He informed that Khan’s bail application was rejected on grounds of jurisdiction and hence NCB should take only one day and not a week to file its reply.Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Advait Sethna appearing for NCB further sought time till Thursday along with SPP Chimalker who argued that 7 days is a reasonable time for filing the relevant replies.
BACKGROUND
On October 8, 2021, the bail applications of Aryan Khan and two others in the cruise drug bust case were rejected citing incorrect jurisdiction. The court had opined that section 36A of the NDPS Act states that all offences under this act which are punishable with imprisonment for more than three years shall be triable only by the special court constituted for the area in which the offence has been committed.
On October 2, 2021 NCB's zonal director Sameer Wankhede led a team of officers for a raid at the International Terminal of Mumbai Port Trust from where the Cordelia Cruise liner was to depart for Goa. Eight people were detained after the NCB allegedly seized intermediate and small quantities of cocaine, MDMA (ecstasy), charas and Rs. 1,33,000 cash.
