NDPS court to hear Fardeen Khan's plea on June 5

Mumbai, Jun 4: The special NDPS court will hear the application moved by film actor Fardeen Khan demanding that prosecution may specify the amount of cocaine for which he will be tried, as it is not specified in the chargesheet.

Fardeen's counsel Aiyaz Khan filed an application before the special NDPS court on Wednesday, which would come up for hearing tomorrow. In the application, he contended that Khan was arrested when he was purchasing only one gram cocaine from a peddler.

The drug-peddler also backed the statement of Fardeen that he was only selling one gram to actor and remaining eight grams to some other buyer.

The actor was arrested by the narcotics control bureau (NCB) sleuths near Juhu area of the city during May, 2001 for illegal possession of cocaine.

The present move by the actor would help him get lesser punishment because the punishment varies according to the quantity of drug recovered from the accused's possession.

A person caught with less than 26 gm of cocaine in his possession is termed a 'user'. It is alleged that about nine gms cocaine was recovered from Fardeen's car.

However, Khan, son of actor-producer Feroze Khan, was released on bail on a personal bond of Rs 20,000.

Drug traffickers Nasir Abdul Karim Shaikh and Tony Gomes were also arrested by the NCB along with the actor.

UNI