A city-based special NDPS Court in Mumbai on Tuesday granted bail to two youths from Odisha, who were arrested in the sensational drug bust on a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
As per reports, the NCB had nabbed Manish Rajgaria with 2.4 grams of Ganja on the latter’s arrival at the Mumbai port on October 4. He was put under arrest the next day and remanded to NCB custody till October 11 along with fellow Odia Avin Sahoo.
"Aryan and his associates in the case were arrested on October 2 by NCB. The cruise returned back to the dock on October 4 and Manish was arrested. Manish has no connection with Aryan or any of his associates. He even has no contacts with regular drug consumers or any drug peddlers. The court granted bail to Manish after realising that the NCB didn't require their custody for interrogation," said Bikash Bhubania, Manish's lawyer.
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While Manish (30) hails from the Civil Township area of Rourkela, Avin (30) is a resident of Raghunathpali.
As per NCB briefing, 2.4 grams of Ganja was seized from Manish, while Avin confessed to having consumed ganja twice on board the cruise liner during the rave party. Both were intercepted after the ship was docked at the Mumbai port for the second time on October 4. Both Avin and Manish had joined the party as guests.
Following their arrest, the NCB had allowed both of them to speak to their families and avail of legal aid.
Meanwhile, the Mumbai High Court has adjourned the hearing of Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan’s bail application in connection with the cruise ship drug bust case for Wednesday.
Senior advocate and former Attorney General for India Mukul Rohatgi represented Aryan Khan, in his bail plea before Bombay HC. Aryan had moved the High Court after both Magistrate and Sessions courts rejected his plea.
Defending Aryan, Rohatgi argued that no drug was recovered from Aryan and no medical test has shown that he consumed drugs.
The NCB on Tuesday had filed an affidavit opposing the bail plea of 23-year-old Aryan alleging that he was not just a consumer of drugs but also involved in illicit drug trafficking.
On the basis of WhatsApp chat between Aryan and Ananya Panday, the investigation agency had filed the affidavit while Aryan's lawyer had defended that the chat between the duo had taken place long back and had no links with the drug bust incident on the cruise.
While informing about Aryan's case, Bhubania said, "NCB is trying to prove that Aryan has links with drug peddlers highlighting certain chat history on WhatsApp, though nowhere the term 'drug' is mentioned. As per legal rules, a person can't be prosecuted on the basis of chat history. Moreover, it was not mentioned anywhere about mobile seizure from Aryan, but later NCB said that Aryan gave them his mobile on-demand for enquiry."