The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) late on Saturday night detained at least eight persons, including Hindi film superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan, during a raid conducted at a high profile party that was being held on a cruise in Mumbai. Drugs including cocaine, charas, MDMA ecstasy and other intoxicants were recovered from the alleged rave party. On Sunday, three of the eight, including Aryan Khan, were arrested and produced in court, which sent them to one-day NCB custody. Later on Sunday, the other five too were arrested and are likely to be produced in court on Monday.
“Eight persons—Aryaan Khan, Arbaaz Seth Merchant, Munmun Dhamecha, Nupur Sarika, Ismeet Singh, Mohak Jaswal, Vikrant Chhoker, Gomit Chopra are being questioned in connection with the raid at an alleged rave party at a cruise off Mumbai coast,” said Sameer Wankhede, the zonal director of NCB. On Sunday, three of the eight, Aryan Khan, Arbaz Seth Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha were arrested in connection with the raid. Hours after the NCB busted an alleged drugs party on the Cordelia Cruise ship, which was on its way to Goa, the three were taken for a medical test, before they were brought back to NCB’s zonal office.
The three of them were produced before Holiday Magistrate R.K. Rajebhosale for hearing of the remand application. The magistrate granted NCB the custody of the three until 4 October, after Advait Sethna, the NCB counsel sought their custody to carry on with the probe further. NCB custody was granted after Aryan Khan’s counsel argued against police custody in a bailable offence.
Advocate Sethna told the court that 13 gm of cocaine, 5 gm of mephedrone, 21 gm of charas, 22 pills of MDMA ecstasy and Rs 1.33 lakh in cash were recovered during the raid. Sethna argued for a two-day police custody and said that the NCB had detained a supply person and so needed to probe more to find the contact and link. Apparently, some of the WhatsApp chats contain incriminating material.
However, Advocate Manshinde, who appeared for Aryan, and Advocate Sartaj, who appeared for Arbaz and Munmun, argued against police custody. “My client was invited by the organisers. He had no boarding pass. Nothing was found with him. Subsequently his mobile instrument was examined. Nothing was found in subsequent tests,” Manshinde told the court.
As per the NCB, the three of them were booked under Sections 8C, 20b, 27 (Punishment for consumption of any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance) and 35 (Presumption of culpable mental state) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act).
Section 8C refers to prohibition to produce, manufacture, possess, sell, purchase, transport, warehouse, use, consume, import inter-state, export inter-state, import into India, export from India or transship any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance. Section 20B is invoked in punishment for producing, manufacturing, possessing, selling, purchasing, transportation, imports inter-state, exports inter-state or use of cannabis.
The other five, namely Nupur Satija, Ishmeet Singh Chadha, Mohak Jaiswal, Gomit Chopra and Vikrant Chhokar were arrested later on Sunday and will be produced in court tomorrow after their medical, said the NCB.
Cordelia Cruises on Sunday said that they were not connected with the drug bust. They said, “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. We are extending our full support and cooperating with the authorities.”
NCB is conducting raids in the Belapur area of Navi Mumbai based on information extracted from persons detained after a raid at an alleged rave party on a cruise off the Mumbai coast.
Earlier on Friday, the NCB had seized 4.600 kilograms of Ephedrine worth Rs 5 crore in Mumbai’s Andheri. The contraband was sourced from Hyderabad and was destined for Australia via Mumbai and was concealed in a consignment containing three mattresses, officials said on Friday.