INTRODUCTION
On 02.10.2021, the Narcotics Control bureau (NCB) busted a rave party which was organized on a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast. And during this raid eight people were detained including super star Shahrukh Khan's son Aryan Khan and his friend Arbaaz Merchant. The cruise was a Goa-bound ship and was owned by Cordelia Cruises. When the NCB came to know that the banned
drugs like MDMA, Cocaine and ecstasy were being used on the ship, the NCB team led by its Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede, rushed to the cruise and recovered those drugs. After that the NCB informed "A total of 8 persons including two females have been apprehended and their role is being investigated in relation to the said recovery". The agency was searching for the proper
evidence against the detainees and they were being questioned by the NCB. Sameer Wankhede added that Aryan khan has not been arrested in connection with the case. Then the organisers of the rave party were also apprehended by the NCB which included the managing director of FTV
India (Kashiff Khan) and he is also under the eye of NCB. This event was organised by FTV India with collaboration of a Delhi based company Namascray Experience.
The CEO of Cordelia Cruise confirmed that drugs were found with some passengers and such passengers were taken down by Cordelia as soon as possible. And due to this reason the ship was also delayed.
On 4th of October again four more people were intercepted. And a commercial amount of MD and MDMA pills were recovered from them. Even after the raid these people were holding the rave party, said NCB. Aryan khan, Munmun Dhamecha and Arbaaz Merchant were granted a remand by the Mumbai Court till 7th of October. During this hearing Satish Maneshinde, the counsel who appeared on the behalf of Aryan khan said that Aryan was not associated with the event and he was only invited as a 'special guest'. And he also added that no sign of drugs was found at Aryan Khan's luggage or pockets and they were checked by the NCB official during the raid. An NCB officer informed that Arbaaz Merchant had 6 grams of Charas while Munmun Damecha had 5 grams of Mephedrone and 10 grams of cocaine. Adv. Satish Maneshinde said, “I (Aryan Khan)
don’t have contacts with the organisers or dealers or any other people. My bag was searched,nothing has been found, no recovery or no commercial quantity or anything connected to the NDPS Act”. The agency made a list of the seized contraband which included charas(21 gram), cocaine
(13 gram) , Mephedrone (5 gram) and 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy) worth rupees 1.33 lakh. Sameer Wankhede had earlier said that" eight people - Aryan khan, Arbaaz Merchant, Munmun Dhamecha, Nupur Sarika, Ismeet Singh, Mohak Jaswal, Vikrant Chhoker and Gomit Chopra are being investigated in the connection of the raid". On 6th of October the Mumbai Court sent four more accused namely Gopal jee Anand, Samir Sehgal, Manav Singhal and Bhaskar Arora to the
custody of NCB till 14th October. On 7th October the NCB extended the custody of Aryan khan , Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha till 11th of October. They were sent to judicial custody with 7 other people. The court magistrate said that the bail plea of Aryan khan will be heard at 11 am on 8th of October. And the court has asked NCB to file a reply till then. So the accused is kept
in the judicial custody of NCB office till Tomorrow. While asking for the extension of custody the NCB said to the court that “they will need the arrested people for the confrontation of the present accused." As of now the anti-drug agency has carried out various search operations and 16 people
are arrested in this case. "A total of 16 arrests have been made in this case, probe underway. There are some links (related to bitcoin), but I can't share them for now. It will hamper the investigation," said Sameer Wankhede. And the case is still under investigation.
REFERENCES
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/ncbs-sameer-
wankhede-on-cruise-raid-a-total-of-16-arrests-have-been-made-in-this-case-probe-
underway/articleshow/86822270.cms