In a relief to actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan, a Mumbai court on Wednesday allowed the release of his passport. The travel document was in the custody of the court as part of the bail condition in the cruise-drugs case. As per a Bar and Bench tweet, the court has also allowed for the bail bond to be cancelled. Aryan Khan will now be able to travel outside the country.

Earlier this month, Aryan had filed a plea before a special NDPS court seeking the return of his passport. He was given a clean chit in May by the Narcotics Control Bureau in last year's cruise-drugs case. Aryan was granted bail by the Bombay High Court in October 2021 and his passport was seized by the NCB during the probe.

The NCB had filed a 6,000-page chargesheet against 14 accused in the case on May 27 which excluded Aryan's name.

"Aryan Khan was not named in the chargesheet and his arrest along with imprisonment for 26 days was wrong, especially when no drugs of any kind were found from him. There was no evidence of any kind, there was no material of any nature in violation of any law, except the NDPS Act. We are glad that Sanjay Kumar Singh, heading the NCB SIT, investigated the matter properly and decided not to file a complaint against Aryan Khan due to lack of sufficient evidence," Aryan lawyer, Satish Maneshinde had said.

Recently, NCB deputy director (operations) Sanjay Singh, who headed the Special Investigations Team (SIT) formed to investigate the case, revealed what Aryan said during the investigation. He told India Today, that Aryan told him, “Sir, you have painted me as an international drug trafficker, that I finance drug trafficking--aren’t these charges absurd? They did not find any drugs on my person that day and yet they arrested me. Sir, you have done me great wrong and ruined my reputation. Why did I have to spend so many weeks in jail--did I really deserve it?”

An NCB team busted an alleged drugs party on the ship, which was on its way to Goa at mid-sea. Aryan was arrested along with other accused Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha in the case.

Source: Hindustan Times

BDST:1823 HRS, July 13, 2022
MN