NCB gets 2 more months to file chargesheet in Cordelia cruise case

A special court in Mumbai granted two more months to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to file its charge sheet in the Cordelia cruise ship drug bust case involving Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan among others.

A total of 20 persons were arrested during the 2-3 October 2021 midnight raid and subsequent investigations.

The deadline to file the charge sheet was 2 April, however, last week, the NCB had sought 90 days’ time on the grounds that investigations were still underway.

It may be recalled, after a string of allegations against NCB’s Mumbai Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede, the case was transferred to SIT headed by NCB’s Deputy Director-General Sanjay Singh.

The NCB had seized 13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams of mephedrone, 21 grams of charas and 22 MDMA/Ecstasy pills during the raid on the Cordelia cruise from Mumbai to Goa.

It may be mentioned, Aryan Khan, social media influencer Arbaaz Merchant and actor-model Munmum Dhamecha had challenged their arrest in the Bombay High Court after the Magistrate’s Court and special NDPS Court had rejected the bail pleas.

In its judgement granting bail to the trio, Justice Nitin Sambre had said: “There is hardly any positive evidence on record to convince this court that all the accused persons with common intention agreed to commit unlawful acts….Rather the investigations carried out to date suggest that applicant/accused no. 1 (Aryan Khan) and applicant/accused no. 2 (Arbaaz Merchant) were travelling independently of applicant/accused no. 3 (Munmum Dhamecha) and there is no meeting of minds on the aforesaid issue.”

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