Aryan Khan to stay in jail until Wednesday

Aryan Khan, Munmun Dhamecha and Arbaaz Merchant will remain in judicial custody till 20 October as the special NDPS [Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act] court in Mumbai that has been hearing their bail pleas in the alleged cruise drug bust case has reserved its order for 20 October. The trio had appealed for bail separately in the court after the magistrate court denied them bail citing jurisdiction limitations.

Appearing for the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), additional solicitor general (ASG) Anil Singh on Thursday continued to oppose the 23-year-old son of Shah Rukh Khan's bail plea. The prosecution's arguments hinged on  WhatsApp chats recovered from the mobile phones of Aryan Khan, as well as the alleged conspiracy that connected him to the commercial quantity peddlers who have been arrested over the course of the investigation. A transcript of the chats was submitted to the court by the NCB and ASG. 

The legal website BarandBench.com quoted Mr Singh as saying, "I have come with a case of conspiracy. In one case, if there are 15-20 people involved and it is a case of conspiracy, and possession with one accused, then 37 kicks in. And then stringent condition against grant of bail will apply (sic)."

The prosecution also referred to the cases of Showik Chakraborty and Armaan Kohli, as precedents to deny the bail plea.

Representing Aryan Khan, senior advocate Amit Desai argued against the prosecution's need to keep Khan in further custody. According to BarandBench.com, he said, "I stand before the court and urge your lordships to follow the law. No celebrity or role model enjoys special status before the court, and hence they should be treated equally before the law."

Desai also emphasised that the language in the WhatsApp chats may be misinterpreted owing to the nature of the language used by youngsters today. 

Khan had been arrested, along with Dhamecha and Merchant on 2 October. He had not yet boarded the cruise ship on the way to Goa and was taken into custody by the NCB. He was remanded in NCB custody till 7 October by a metropolitan magistrate court in Mumbai, which later sent him to judicial custody. The court later denied him bail, directing him to appeal in a special court under the NDPS Act.