India / NCB misinterpreting my WhatsApp chats to incriminate me: Aryan Khan in bail plea

Mumbai: In his bail plea filed before the Bombay High Court on October 20, actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan – arrested after a seizure of drugs on a cruise ship following a raid by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on October 2 – has denied charges of “conspiracy” and claimed that the central agency has been “misinterpreting” WhatsApp chats to incriminate him.

Aryan had approached the HC after a special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act court rejected his bail plea on Wednesday. Denying him bail, the NDPS court had said that though no drugs were found on him, since he was with Arbaaz Merchant — who was found with contraband — and knew about the drugs, the same amounted to “conscious possession”.

Aryan, in his plea against the special court order, has said that WhatsApp chats referred to by NCB are “ex-facie for a period prior to the incident (October 2 rave party) for which the secret information was received”.

The plea added that by “no stretch of imagination” those purported messages could be linked to any conspiracy for which the secret information was received. The secret information received by NCB about Aryan was “obviously false”, as no substance was recovered from him and the matter should have ended there, it stated.

Instead, the recovery from Arbaaz was sought to be connected with Aryan by means of false confessions recorded in the panchnama, which too is in any event inadmissible, the plea said.

Aryan argued that the interpretations of WhatsApp messages by the investigating officer are “unjustified and wrong,” and sought bail on grounds of personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution. He added that there is no material to show tampering with evidence.

The plea further said that while NCB is solely relying on certain alleged WhatsApp chats to “entangle” Aryan, as on date, neither the veracity nor accuracy of these chats have been established.

Conversations over WhatsApp chats are being misinterpreted by NCB, it added.

The application said that “there is no presumption in law that merely because a person is influential, there is likelihood of tampering with evidence”.

It is necessary to have a specific allegation in this regard and in the present case, there is no material to back such allegation, it added.

The plea said that Aryan had no communication with Ameer Furniturewala or any of the organisers of the cruise party. He added that there was no discussion or conversation about the “rave party” or consumption of drugs, “while on the cruise ship or otherwise”.

The petition also stated that HC ruling in the Showik Chakraborty case last October is not applicable in the current case.

Chakraborty was denied bail by HC on the ground that he was not only in touch with drug dealers but was also facilitating procurement of drugs for supply to them.

Aryan’s plea said that no drugs were found on him and the arrest memo mentioned no charge of conspiracy. The cellphones seized also have no mention in the panchanama. He added that the offence of conspiracy under Section 29 of the NDPS Act was added only at the stage of remand.

Therefore, the bar to grant bail under Section 37 of the NDPS Act, which puts stringent conditions for grant of bail in case of offences involving a commercial quantity of drugs, will not be applicable to current facts, the plea said.

Aryan categorically denied allegations of being connected with any commercial quantity, intermediate quantity or international drug trafficking. The allegation is false and this was why he had not been arrested for the same, the plea said.

The plea added that amendment in the NDPS Act made in 2001 prescribed reformative approach to the accused and the same should be adopted in the current case instead of a retributive approach.

Aryan said that even if the court comes to the conclusion that offences under the NDPS Act are non-bailable, there is no evidence to charge him for any offence under the Act.

The respondents are “verily misleading the courts by linking the applicant with the other co-accused and to the recoveries made from such persons”, the application stated.

It added that Aryan had no connection with anyone except Arbaaz and Aachit Kumar, who had invited him for the party, and there is no evidence to record conspiracy between Khan and Merchant.

The HC will hear the bail application on October 26.