NDPS court grants NCB 60 more days to file charge sheet in cruise ship drug case

A special Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court on Thursday granted 60 days extension to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) for filing a charge-sheet in the cruise ship drug raid case involving actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan.

Special NDPS judge V V Patil passed the order on a plea filed by the NCB SIT, which had sought 90 days extension for filing of the charge sheet contending that 15 key suspects were yet to be examined for “fair and logical conclusion of the investigation”.

The SIT had stated in it application that statements of 19 suspects, whose names cropped up during their investigation, were recorded, but 15 key suspects are yet to be examined. Besides, the SIT has examined 10 independent witnesses in connection with the case, but the examination of four more witnesses was yet to be completed.

The SIT has also cited several other reasons for failing to complete the investigation in due course, like restrictions imposed on account of the Covid-19 pandemic, magnitude of the offence, the complicity of the case due to 20 accused from different parts of India, involvement of foreign nationals, tracing the money trail and drug trail, among others.

Its application also stated that examination of main panch KP Gosavi — a witness to the two recoveries made by the NCB team on October 2, 2021 — is incomplete, as Gosavi has been arrested by Pune police and is presently under judicial custody. It added that NCB has thrice requested the concerned judicial magistrate, but is still awaiting favourable orders.

Acting on a specific tip-off, a team of NCB officials, headed by the agency’s Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede, had on October 2 searched certain passengers slated to take a holiday cruise to Goa from the International Cruise Terminal at Green Gate in Mumbai.

During the search, the agency claimed to have seized drugs like 13 grams of Cocaine, 5 grams of Mephedrone, 21 grams of Charas, and 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy) and ₹1.33 lakh in cash from seven of the nine people apprehended during the raid.

Gosavi and Prabhakar Sail were two panch witnesses to the recoveries made from five of the nine people apprehended by the NCB team at the cruise terminal and the cruise ship – 6 grams of Charas purportedly seized from Aryan Khan’s friend Arbaaz Merchant and 13 gm Cocaine, 10 gm Charas, 5 gm MD, 10.62 gm Ecstasy or MDMA allegedly seized from four Delhi residents.

The application further stated that since Sail has turned hostile and filed an affidavit before the special NDPS court, “Gosavi’s examination has become necessary and pivotal for unearthing the true and correct facts of this case.”