Aryan Khan bail hearing : Bombay HC grants bail to Aryan Khan

The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to Aryan Khan and co-accused Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha in plea against rejection of their bail applications by a special NDPS court in the cruise ship drug bust case. Operative part of the order will be made available by tomorrow with reasoned order. The accused will not be released from jail tonight.

Opposing Aryan's bail plea during the HC hearing on Thursday, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) counsel ASG Anil Singh said applicant Aryan Khan is not a first-hand consumer but a regular consumer of drugs for the last two years.

On Wednesday, Senior Advocate Amit Desai, representing co-accused and Aryan's friend Arbaaz Merchant, argued before the single-judge bench of Justice Nitin W Sambre that the NCB's arrests in the case were "illegal" because the agency failed to follow procedure under section 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which mandates the investigating officer to issue notice of appearance prior to arrest. Desai also contended that WhatsApp chats were not admissible in court, according to previous High Court judgments and provisions of the Indian Evidence Act.

In other news, the Pune City Police has 'nabbed' Kiran Gosavi, the self-styled detective cited as an "independent witness" by the NCB in the drugs-on-cruise case involving Aryan Khan, in connection with a cheating case lodged in 2018. Gosavi had gone incommunicado soon after his selfie with Aryan Khan went viral on social media and questions were raised about his conduct during the drugs bust.