NCB won't seek Aryan Khan's custody furthermore; lawyers to file bail in Cordelia cruise drugs case

Mumbai, Oct 4: In a big relief to Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), has reportedly decided not to seek his further custody in Cordelia cruise drug bust case.

It is reported that his lawyers would apply for bail immediately after he is handed over to judicial custody on Monday. On Sunday evening, Aryan and others were produced before the Killa court which granted one-day custody of the accused to the NCB.

Based on a tip-off that a party was scheduled on the ship, an NCB team, led by its zonal director Sameer Wankhede, had raided the Goa-bound ship on Saturday evening and recovered drugs from some of the passengers. "During the raid, over 20 officials of the Mumbai NCB boarded the ship posing as customers. There were 1,800 people on the ship but after checking all were asked to go except the eight including Aryan Khan," the official said.

Of the eight persons, the NCB arrested Aryan Khan, Munmun Dhamecha, daughter of a businessman from Madhya Pradesh, and Arbaaz Merchant, son of a timber businessman, and produced them before a court in Mumbai on Sunday.

Five others were arrested later in the evening and they will be produced before the court on Monday.

During the raids, the NCB seized 13 gm of cocaine, 21 gm of charas, 22 pills of MDMA, and 5 gm of mephedrone along with Rs 1.3 lakh cash.

The anti-drugs agency was keeping a close watch on this event on the cruise ship for the last 15-20 days after receiving information that a drug party will be organised, an official said.

The (Delhi-based) firm was tasked with the management of the event onboard Cordelia Cruises' Empress ship, which was supposed to take place from October 2 to October 4.

All known organisers of the event are now under the scanner of the NCB, he said. The NCB will now determine whether any of the organisers had any knowledge about the drugs being brought and consumed onboard during the three-day cruise in the Arabian Sea. Three additional directors of the event management company are now under the lens of the agency, the official added.

These three additional directors were tasked with selling tickets, preparing a guest list, inviting celebrities and helping with the musical events onboard the ship, he added. The cruise company in a statement on Sunday said it had nothing to do with this incident.

"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," Jurgen Bailom, Chief Executive Officer and President, Waterways Leisure Tourism Pvt Ltd said in the statement earlier in the day. It said Cordelia Cruises was extending our full support and cooperating with the authorities. PTI