Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, in his plea in the Bombay High Court seeking bail, has said the NCB was "misinterpreting" his WhatsApp chats to implicate him in the case of seizure of banned drugs aboard a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast earlier this month.?
After Aryan's bail was rejected for the third time, his team moved the HC.?
The HC will hear his bail plea on October 26.In his appeal in the HC against the special court order, Aryan Khan said the Narcotics Control Bureau's "interpretation and misinterpretation" of the WhatsApp chats collected from his mobile phone was "wrong and unjustified."?
The 23-year-old claimed no contraband was recovered from him after the NCB raided the ship and maintained he has no connection with any of the other accused in the case except Arbaaz Merchant and Aachit Kumar.
So far, the anti-drugs agency has arrested as many as 20 people in connection with the case.
"By no stretch of imagination can those purported messages be linked to any conspiracy for which the secret information was received," it said."The interpretation of the WhatsApp messages is that of the investigating officer, and such interpretation is unjustified and wrong," the appeal said.?
Aryan Khan also questioned the special court's contention, while refusing him bail, that since he is an influential person, he may tamper with evidence in the case if released from custody.?
¡°Aryan demanded books from the jail officers. Accordingly, the authorities helped him borrow a book from the jail library, a religious one. The jail library has hundreds of books bought by prison authorities as well as those brought in by inmates and left in the library after they are released,¡± said the sources.?
The authorities claim that sometimes, inmates are also allowed to get books from relatives.??¡°In such cases, we only allow books related to religious matters,¡± added the officer, on condition of anonymity.
Aryan Khan was arrested on October 3 by the NCB along with his friend Arbaaz Merchant (26) and fashion model Munmun Dhamecha (28).The trio is presently in judicial custody.
A special court, designated to hear cases related to the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS), refused to grant them bail noting that "they were part of the conspiracy."?
The lower court had said Aryan Khan had a "nexus with drug peddlers and suppliers and had indulged in illicit drug activities regularly."
(With PTI inputs)?