Aryan Khan given clean chit in Mumbai

The Narcotics Control Bureaus SIT (special investigation team) submitted a chargesheet in the cruise ship drugs bust case, giving a clean chit to six accused including actor Shah Rukh Khans son Aryan Khan. The chargesheet was submitted against 14 accused.
Aryan was booked for attempting consumption of drugs under section 27 and attempting an offence under section 8(c) (possession), section 28 (abetment) and section 29 (conspiracy). However, the high court said WhatsApp chats extracted from his mobile phone disclosed nothing objectionable nor was there any evidence to show that Merchant or Dhamecha and other co-accused had hatched any conspiracy to commit drug offences
In March, finding progress in the probe and the reasons cited compelling, a special NDPS court had granted an additional 60 days to submit the chargesheet.
Special judge VV Patil had then found that the report submitted by the prosecution justified the extension, and the progress of the case was indicated in the two report charts. The court also accepted that the reasons cited by the prosecution as compelling, and cited the gravity of the offence and the number of accused involved to grant the plea partly.
20 accused were named in the FIR. Alleged drug peddlers – Abdul Kadar and Nigerian national Chinedu Igwe – are the only two accused in jail.
Last November, the SIT took over the probe from the Mumbai unit of the NCB, then headed by Sameer Wankhede. Wankhedes family later became embroiled in a war of words with minister Nawab Malik and a case is on in the high court.
The stipulated time to submit a drugs case chargesheet is 180 days and it ends on April 2.
Before the case was taken over by the SIT, several allegations were made against the probe. One of the witnesses, Prabhakar Sail, in an affidavit alleged discussion of payoffs to be made to an NCB official, besides a meeting with Shah Rukh Khan’s manager where money allegedly changed hands.