Repelled by ghoulish epicaricacy of those witch-hunting: Tharoor on Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan's arrest

New Delhi, Oct 04: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday came out in support of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan after his son Aryan was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in connection with the seizure of banned drugs onboard a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast.

"I am no fan of recreational drugs & haven't ever tried any, but I am repelled by the ghoulish epicaricacy displayed by those now witch-hunting @iamsrk on his son's arrest. Have some empathy, folks. The public glare is bad enough; no need to gleefully rub a 23yr old's face in it," Tharoor tweeted.

I am no fan of recreational drugs & haven’t ever tried any, but I am repelled by the ghoulish epicaricacy displayed by those now witch-hunting @iamsrk on his son’s arrest. Have some empathy, folks. The public glare is bad enough; no need to gleefully rub a 23yr old’s face in it.

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) October 4, 2021

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 drugs were recovered from suspects who had concealed them in their clothes, undergarments and purses, reported news agency Press Trust of India, quoting an unnamed official of the Narcotics Control Bureau.