Mumbai: Aryan Khan's bail plea - his third since his arrest on October 3 - was heard by the Bombay High Court Tuesday afternoon, with former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi part of a high-powered legal team.
Earlier today the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) accused Pooja Dadlani, who is the manager of Aryan's father, Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, of trying to influence witnesses. Aryan Khan has said he had nothing to do with the Rs 8 crore payoff allegations involving Sameer Wankhede.
Here are the top 10 arguments by Aryan Khan's lawyer today:
- "As far as I (Aryan Khan) am concerned, there is NO recovery, NO consumption and NO medical test. Arbaaz Merchant had six grams of charas which was recovered from his shoes. Merchant is denying it... I am not concerned, except that he is my friend."
- "My case is NOT conscious possession. What somebody had in their shoe or wherever is not my concern... What was recovered (from Arbaaz Merchant) was small - six grams. This is not enough to keep me in custody. Many others have been found with intermediary and commercial quantity."
- "It (the drugs) was not in my control... what was found in Arbaaz Merchant's shoe. Arbaaz is not my servant, he is not in my control, so there is no conspiracy. Max you may link me with Arbaaz and accused no. 17 (Aachit Kumar) only after recovery. But I am not linked with anyone else. Conspiracy is when all have met and have a meeting of minds."
- "There was a statement under Section 67 which was retracted (the NCB has pointed to this statement to show "he (Aryan) used to consume drugs" and has said it is "admissible until proven wrong"). We had raised this in the Supreme Court... (NCB officials) are officers and not police... statements made to NDPS officers are inadmissible."
- "As for the WhatsApp chats, they were of the time period of 2018. None of the chats are from the cruise. There is no case where those chats with '123' have anything to do with this saga... to use general phrase like 'conspiracy' is not right. The chats do not pertain to the cruise or conspiracy. This is in the past and is just supposed to show conspiracy."
- "These are young boys. They can be sent to rehab and need not undergo trial. It had come in some newspaper that Social Ministry mentioned reform... Maximum punishment is imprisonment of one year... that is maximum and not minimum. I am not, in any case, concerned with Section 27A. There is no evidence. I have not financed trafficking."
- Accused No. 17 (Aachit Kumar) is a young college kid. From the records that are coming out, A17 is a friend with whom Aryan Khan was playing online poker... and that was the communication exchanged. Based on that communication they are showing connection."
- "Beyond this communication there is nothing. Aryan Khan was asked about the chats and he said he knew due to the online game. Nowadays there is a lot of online gaming. We have online poker, online cricket..."
- "Sameer Wankhede... he said it is on account of enmity with a political personality whose son-in-law was arrested (a reference to Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik). Today what is being said is rebounding on me. Kindly keep me away from that controversy. I am making it clear I have nothing against any NCB officer. I have no grievance."
- "Now this paragraph has mention of (my father's) manager (Pooja Dadlani) and I filed a rejoinder saying I am not making allegations against officers or panchnamas and I have no connection. I am respectfully submitting I am not making any allegation. This is a normal case except for this unsavoury comments."