Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan had advised his friend Arbaaz Merchant not to carry contraband to the cruise party, the latter said in his statement to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).Merchant (26) was named as an accused in the chargesheet submitted against 14 people on Friday. It is alleged that 6gm of charas was recovered from Merchant after the October 2021 raid. He is currently out on bail.Sanjay Kumar Singh, the NCB's deputy director-general (operations) told PTI the 'basic premise' of the case - that Arbaaz Merchant was carrying drugs for Aryan Khand - was found to be 'fallacious'. "His (Aryan Khan's) friend Arbaaz Merchant denied that he carried drugs for Aryan Khan. In fact, he told the SIT that Aryan Khan had told him that no drugs should be brought on the cruise as NCB was very active," Singh told PTI.
Aryan Khan had been arrested October 3 and spent nearly a month in jail, only getting bail on October 28 and being released on October 30.NCB director-general SN Pradhan told PTI it was a case of 'underwhelming evidence' (against Aryan Khan) as compared to the golden principle of gathering 'overwhelming evidence' against the accused. The NCB earlier said it had applied 'the touchstone of the principle of proof beyond reasonable doubt' while re-examining the case.However, while Aryan Khan has been given a clean chit, Arbaaz Merchant is one of 14 named in the eventual chargesheet by the NCB.The others are Vikrant Chokkar, Mohak Jaswal, Ishmeet S Chadha, Gomit Chopra, Abdul Kadar Shaikh, Shreyas Surendra Nair, Manish Rajgarhia, Chinedu Igwe, Shivraj R Harijan, Nupur Satija, Okoro Uzeoma, Mummun Dhamecha and Aachit Kumar.