Aryan Khan bail order out: HC says no evidence of conspiracy key points

The Bombay High Court on Saturday (November 20) issued a detailed bail order and observed that there is no evidence of conspiracy between Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha to commit drug-related offences. “There is hardly any positive evidence on record to convince this Court that all the accused persons with common intention had agreed to commit the unlawful act,” the High Court said.

A single bench of Justice Nitin Sambre had granted bail to the trio on October 28 following their arrest on October 2 after the NCB raided a cruise.

It further said that nothing objectionable was found in the WhatsApp conversation between Aryan Khan and Arbaaz Merchant. “There is hardly any positive evidence on record to convince this Court that all the accused persons with common intention agreed to commit the unlawful act,” the order said.

It further pointed out that “merely because Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant, and Munmun Dhamecha were traveling on the same cruise,” that invoking the provisions of Section 29 against them cannot be said to be a “satisfactory founder”.

Here are the key points of the 14-page detailed order:

• There is no criminal evidence against the accused.
• No physical evidence to link Aryan’s WhatsApp chat.
• No objectionable substance was found from Aryan.
• Munmun and Arbaaz met with substance. Both had a small amount of narcotics.
• There was no meeting of mind in this matter.
• Munmun has no past relation with Aryan and Arbaaz.
• After accessing Aryan’s chats, it was found that there was no conspiracy.
• There is hardly any evidence that there was a conspiracy to commit the crime.

“The Court has already observed that there is no material on record to infer that the applicants have conspired to commit the offence. That being so, at this stage, it is difficult to infer that the applicant was involved in an offense of commercial quantity. As such the parameters prescribed under Section 37 of the NDPS Act will hardly have any consequence while considering the bail applications of the applicants.”

The High Court had granted bail to the three accused on October 28.

The court also said that Khan was not in possession of drugs, while the other two had “small quantities” of drugs under the NDPS Act.

An NCB team busted an alleged drugs party on board the Cordelia cruise ship, which was on its way to Goa in the middle of the sea on the night of October 2. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had detained eight people for questioning in connection with the seizure of drugs on the cruise ship. All eight men were later arrested on October 3, including Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha. A total of 20 people including Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha have been arrested so far in connection with the case.

– With inputs from Rajeev Singh, ANI