In a shocking disclosure, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has accused superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son of illicit drug trafficking. The NCB has strongly argued that Aryan was in touch with "some persons abroad who appear to be a part of an International Drug Network" to procure a "bulk quantity of hard drugs", the anti-narcotics agency said in a statement to the court on Wednesday. The NCB today told the court that "evidence showed" Aryan Khan frequently took banned substances; Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, representing the central agency, also referred to on-record statements to claim that Aryan Khan has been consuming drugs for the last few years.
Aryan Khan was "not even on the cruise" raided by NCB officers on October 2, so the allegation of drug trafficking against him is "absurd", his lawyer Amit Desai told the Mumbai court on Wednesday in response to the NCB's claims. The NCB counsel also said that the "innocent until proven guilty" does not apply in the cases of NDPS offences. "In the NDPS Act, the presumption is of culpable a mental state, and it is for the accused to prove that he was not in possession during the trial," Anil Singh said. The agency in its reply to the bail plea, which was submitted in front of the special NDPS court on Wednesday, said the quantity of the recovery is immaterial as the initial probe has revealed that Aryan Khan is a regular consumer of drugs and used to procure through Arbaaz Merchant. Aryan Khan, 23, was arrested along with his friend Arbaaz Merchant and six others after the October 2 mid-sea drugs raid on the goa-bound Cordelia cruise ship off the coast of Mumbai.