Aryan Khan cruise drugs case: NCB gets 60 more days to file chargesheet

A special Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) court has granted Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) 60 more days to file the chargesheet in the Mumbai cruise drug case, in relation to which 20 people, including actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, were arrested.

The court reserved the order on Wednesday after hearing both sides for nearly two hours.

The NCB has been investigating the case for nearly six months and the stipulated time for filing the chargesheet, that is 180 days, ended on Thursday, after which the NCB had sought for an extension of 90 days.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the NCB, through Special Public Prosecutor Advait Sethna, had submitted the details of the investigation in the court.

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“The forensic reports of the 17 samples that were sent for analysis to the laboratory in Pune have come in and the agency claims that according to the reports, the samples contained narcotics or psychotropic drugs as defined within the ambit of the NDPS Act,” Sethna said.

As of now, the statements of 69 people have been recorded, 10 independent witnesses have been examined and four are yet to be questioned in the case.

Opposing the extension application, defense lawyers Advocates Kushal Mor and Apoorv Srivastava, appearing for accused Abdul Kadar Shaikh, and Advocates Ayaz Khan and Gorakh Liman, appearing for the second accused in custody, a Nigerian citizen, Chinendu Igwe, had argued that nothing was stopping the prosecution from filing a chargesheet first and then continuing with their investigation and filing a supplementary chargesheeet later.

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The NCB raided a cruise ship, which was going from Mumbai to Goa, on October 2 last year and had detained Aryan Khan and seven other persons.