Aryan Khan & 2 others' bail hearing adjourned till Oct 28; Lawyers argue 'no conspiracy'

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing of bail petition of Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha to October 28, Thursday. The matter will be heard tomorrow at 3 pm. In the day-2 hearing, lawyers of Arbaaz Merchant, Aryan Khan and Munmun Dhamecha argued their cases. ASG Anil Singh for Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) will respond to the arguments on Thursday.

Bombay High Court hears Aryan Khan's bail plea: Highlights

Senior counsel Amit Desai, arguing for Arbaaz Merchant, dismissed the conspiracy angle. He said that the three accused were charged with sections 20 (B) and 27 "which means all three people had come there only for consumption".

"If there was no conspiracy at that moment, then the punishment was 1 year. We keep joint possession points aside. The investigating officer should have issued a notice under 41 (A)," he added. Desai further questioned if the conspiracy was not added at the time of arrest then "how come it came later."

"The arrest was illegal. I point out a Supreme Court judgement which says the arrest is an extremely strong measure and should be exercised only to prevent the accused from committing another crime or preventing him from running away from law," Desai argued.

He stated that the arrest memo of Aryan, Arbaaz and Munmun did not indicate that they were arrested for conspiracy but for possession/consumption. "The conspiracy was added later. The Special Court was misled by the prosecution that they were arrested for conspiracy," Desai submits.

Advocate Amit Desai admitted that his client consumed charras. "This is a case of nothing more than personal consumption," he said.

Accused Munmun Dhamecha's lawyer Kashif Khan Deshmukh, arguing for her bail, said her client is a fashion model and does stage shows and ramp walks. "I (Munmun) was invited by one person on the cruise for my professional obligations," he said.

He argued that nothing was recovered from his client during searches conducted by NCB. Khan Deshmukh said that the case against Mummun is a copy-paste from the other case. "Munmun was made a scapegoat," Khan Deshmukh said adding that drugs recovered from the room were related to other accused Soumya and Baldev.

On Tuesday, former A-G Mukul Rohatgi representing Aryan Khan refuted NCB's claim of conspiracy. He said that Aryan Khan was invited to the cruise. "My client and Arbaaz were apprehended before they could board...While 6 grams of charas was recovered from Arbaaz, there was no recovery from Aryan. No medical test to prove that he consumed drugs, so there's no case," he argued.

He further stated that the WhatsApp chats recovered from Aryan Khan's phone have no connection to the rave party. "They are 2018, 2019, 2020. None of these relates to the cruise party," he said.