Even as the busting of rave party on a cruise off Mumbai coast and arrest of Shahrukh Khan or SRK's son Aryan has been a fortnight long meticulous plan of action by the country's apex anti-narcotic body - Narcotics Control Bureau of India, the fact remains is SRK has been on the agency's radar soon after Sushant Singh Rajput's (SSR) mysterious death last year.
As per reports, NCB got the whiff of the cruise rave party post the arrest of actor Arjun Rampal girl friend's brother Agisilaos Demetriades in September last week. The name of Demetriades first popped up during NCB's marathon investigation into the drug angle in SSR's death case last year.
On November 13, 2020, NCB had raided the residence of Arjun Rampal and stumbled on 14 tablets of Clonazepam Dispersible Tablet Clonotri (sedative medicine) and 4 tablets of Ultracet Tramadol Hydrochloride and Acetaminophen ( an opioid like medicine prescribed for severe pain), though the actor filed a reply showing the seized drugs have been prescribed for medical conditions (of his sister and pet dog).
The SRK Link
During last year's pervasive raids and full-scale investigations by NCB in SSR case, the decoded Whatsapp messages had tumbled out name of a big star with the initial 'S' and who happens to be Deepika Padukone's co-star.
Last year Deepika Padukone and her manager had been subjected to intense grilling over the decoded whatsapp 'maal hai kya' messages mentioning the banned drugs like 'Hash -ish'.
The reports then showed NCB getting some leads over consumption of drugs by many top stars of the day. And it is during that thorough probe, actors with the initials 'A', 'R' and 'S' had come under the NCB scanner.
The NCB raid of 'A' - Arjun Rampal's - house later had lent credence to the other two names in circulation then. The gossip had been that 'S' stands for SRK. But anti-narcotics sleuths didn't lay their hands on the bollywood badshah for lack conclusive clues.
Reports then has also suggested that Arjun Rampal sourced the banned drugs from Demetriades and supplied the same to SRK.
Also, the same reports mentioned about SRK's wife having been detained in Berlin airport for carrying Marijuana. She, however, was later released as medical marijuana for personal consumption is legal in Germany.
These are the inputs that the NCB team had followed on during the SSR case, and they were on the task of tracking the spread of the roots to big bollywod names. The team has been on the lookout for conclusive evidences. And the yearlong hard tracking, has yielded the 'cruise' treasure to NCB.
The Sidekick
Drugs and Aryan look no big surprise, if the famous SRK-Gauri tete-a-tete with Simi Garewal in 1997 is seen in the backdrop. The bollywood couple were seen talking about 'spoiling' the child. And Khan seen saying of letting Aryan to take drugs, follow girls and have sex.. for 'recreation'. He even seen lamenting, "What I couldn't do, Aryan will enjoy all that."
'Recreation' And The Legal Impact
Since Aryan has been arrested under the provisions of NDPS Act, and the offenses under the Act are non-bailable, SRK's son will have to remain in custody for a long time.
The section 37 of NDPS Act clearly states down the stringent conditions for bail to be granted. It says, “The court should be satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that he is not guilty of such offence and that he is not likely to commit any offence while on bail.”
Offense Of Aryan Khan
The offense made out by Aryan Khan seems to be consumption of banned narcotic substances. However, more depends on the seizure of drug quantity from him.
But as per the section 27 of NDPS Act, under which Aryan has been arrested, if one is held guilty of consuming narcotic drug or pyschotropic substances, the individual has to serve a punishment of rigorous imprisonment extended up to 1-year or Rs 20,000 fine or both.
The maximum punishment of 1-yr jail seems applicable here as NCB had seized the drugs like MDMA, Cocaine etc.