HC order 'proves' Aryan Khan was kidnapped by Sameer Wankhede: Nawab Malik

Mumbai: After the Bombay high court issued a detailed bail order for Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, arrested in the drugs-on-cruise case last month, Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik has issued a tweet with pointers from the order copy.

Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik, who has repeatedly accused the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede of levelling false charges against Aryan Khan and others in the drugs-on-cruise case, amped up his attack on the central anti-drugs agency.

“High Court order proves that the #AryanKhan case was a case of Kidnapping and Ransom. It was pre planned but a selfie released in public domain failed the plan. The Farjiwada now stands exposed,” Nawab Malik, who is a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, tweeted on Saturday.

A single bench of Justice NW Sambre granted bail to Aryan Khan, his friend Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha on October 28 in the case on a personal bond of ₹1 lakh each. A detailed copy of the order was released on Saturday.

Aryan Khan, Merchant and Dhamecha were arrested by the NCB on October 3 and booked under several sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act for conspiracy, possession, sale, purchase and illicit trafficking of banned substances.

The Bombay high court said in its that there is "hardly any positive evidence" against Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant, and Munmun Dhamecha for the offence of conspiracy under the NDPS Act.

"There is hardly any positive evidence on record to convince this Court that all the accused persons with common intention agreed to commit unlawful act," the high court said in its 14-page order while granting bail to Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant, and Munmun Dhamecha.

The court also said that the WhatsApp chats from the phone of Aryan Khan show that nothing objectionable was noticed to suggest that he, Merchant and Dhamecha along with other accused in the case hatched a conspiracy of committing the offence.

It further explained that "merely because Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant, and Munmun Dhamecha were travelling on the same cruise," that by itself cannot be termed as "satisfying foundation" for invoking provisions of Section 29 against them. 

The court also noted that Khan was not in possession of drugs while the other two had "small quantities" of drugs under the NDPS Act.

Aryan Khan walked out of the Arthur Road prison on October 30 and he has to appear before the NCB office every Friday to mark his presence as per one of the bail conditions imposed by the high court.

Aryan Khan, Merchant and Dhamecha have also been directed to not leave the country without permission from the trial court and to inform the NCB if they intend to leave Mumbai.