A Mumbai court on Thursday sent Aryan Khan, the son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, and seven others to 14-day judicial custody in connection with the alleged seizure of banned drugs from a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast. Ideally, an accused in judicial custody is sent to a prison and the process of securing bail gets much easier. LIVE Updates
However, in Aryan’s case, the Covid-19 pandemic has thrown a spanner in the works as amended rules stipulate that jail authorities do not accept an accused’s custody after 6 pm without a fresh Covid-19 test report. Since Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R M Nerlikar pronounced his order at around 7 pm, that window passed for Aryan. Now, both of his bail applications will be heard on Friday at 12:30 pm.
After the court granted Aryan judicial custody, the investigating officer in the case told the judge that a negative RT-PCR report was mandatory for judicial custody. The court discussed the matter with all parties involved and the anti-drug agency was asked about the alternatives. When asked if it the accused could spent another night in NCB custody, both the prosecution as well as the defence agreed.
Due to Covid protocol in Maharashtra, it is mandatory for all accused to have a negative RT-PCR report before they are move into a prison in the state. No jail accepts an accused without a negative report.
This has meant that several accused who have been ordered imprisonment have stayed in the custody of the investigating agency till their RT-PCR test.
On Thursday, defence lawyer Satish Maneshinde told the court they didn’t mind if Aryan was kept in NCb custody as the ‘NCB officials had treated all the accused quite well’. Thereafter, the judge put all the accused in the custody of the NCB under the supervision of Sameer Wankhede, the Zonal Director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), who spearheaded the raid on the cruise ship.
They will be moved to a lockup for the judicial custody on Friday after their RT-PCR test procedure is completed. Meanwhile, their bail please will be heard at 12:30 pm.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had sought an extension of their NCB custody, but the request was not granted. Aryan, Munmun Dhamecha and Arbaaz Merchant were arrested by the NCB on October 3 following a raid on a Goa-bound ship, while the other five were arrested the next day.
They were produced before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R M Nerlikar at the end of their earlier remand. The court sent them in judicial custody even as the probe agency had sought extension of remand till October 11.
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