In a major relief, the Bombay High Court today granted bail to Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan in the drugs-on-cruise case. The star son was represented by Mukul Rohatgi, the former Attorney General of India (AGI). He was the lead counsel along with Satish Maneshinde and senior counsel Amit Desai was also present in court for the hearing before Justice Nitin Sambre. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had opposed Aryan Khan’s bail plea, alleging that the 23-year-old was not just a consumer of drugs, but also involved in illicit drug trafficking and was in conscious possession of contraband. ASG Anil Singh stated in court, "My contention is he was found in possession. He was connected with drug peddlers. It was a commercial quantity. Hence we invoked 28 and 29. It was only 4 hours and they were aware of the grounds so it cannot be an illegal arrest. Conspiracy is difficult to prove. Only the conspirator knows how they conspired. I will leave to the conscience of the court."
While Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi argued on Aryan Khan's behalf and stated, "I knew only Arbaaz, I did not know anyone else. It is true it is difficult to prove that there is common meeting of mind. But facts cannot be ignored. There has to be meeting of minds. There may be conscious possession of 6 gms, but how do you prove the other recovered substance?" NCB also claimed that Aryan Khan and a woman named Pooja Dadlani, Shah Rukh Khan's manager, were tampering with the evidence and witnesses in the case in an attempt to derail the investigation. Aryan Khan was arrested on October 3 along with seven others after NCB raided a drugs bust on a luxury cruise.