Ahead of Aryan Khan bail hearing, here's what to know about the drug case so far

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) minister Nawab Malik on Monday demanded that the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) prove the claims made by some unnamed officials that Aryan Khan had expressed ‘remorse’ at his behaviour while detained at Arthur Road Central Jail. According to unconfirmed reports in some sections of the media, Aryan reportedly underwent a “counselling session” in jail with the NCB teams recently and it was claimed that he was purportedly “full of guilt and remorse” over the recent incidents that led to his arrest and custody since October 2.

Malik brought up how the reports claimed that Aryan, the son of superstar Shah Rukh Khan, also allegedly promised NCB sleuths that he would ‘behave’ in the future. Trashing these reports, NCP national spokesperson Malik said the central narcotics agency should make public the video in which Aryan has allegedly made such statements. “When did he say this? Did the NCB team go to the Arthur Road Jail? They must produce the video evidence of this,” Malik said. “It’s high time the NCB stops planting such fake stories. Let the truth emerge and it will wash away all the lies being bundled around till now.”

Aryan, along with seven others, were detained after the NCB raided an alleged rave party aboard a luxury cruise ship on October 2. He was arrested on October 3 and has been in NCB and judicial custody since then. The agency has arrested a dozen other persons in connection with the case. On October 14, Aryan’s bail plea was reserved by a special court and will continue on October 20.

The minister asserted that it is “now confirmed that Aryan Khan” will get bail on October 20 and the NCB is trying to “plant some positive news” in its favour, but the real truth will come out soon.

A day earlier, a senior Shiv Sena leader urged the Supreme Court to order a probe into the Narcotics Control Bureau and its alleged violation of Aryan’s fundamental rights in the case. Making the plea under Article 32 of the Constitution, Kishore Tiwari asked Chief Justice NV Ramana to intervene into the manner where the “biased” NCB has been “hounding” film personalities and other celebrities. He said that the Special NDPS Court (Mumbai) deferring the verdict in the bail plea of Aryan and other accused until October 20, while citing public holidays, had subjected the accused “to big humiliation and kept in jail in an undemocratic and illegal way” for 17 nights.

On October 15, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray broke his silence about the case, saying in a public address that the cruise ship scandal was a ploy to defame the state. Thackeray made the comments about the Narcotics Control Bureau without naming Shah Rukh or his son Aryan. “Is (drugs seizure) only happening in Maharashtra? Drugs worth crores were seized from Mundra Port. Where is this Mundra port situated?” he asked, referring to India’s largest commercial port in the state of Gujarat.

Amid the case, reports have claimed that Shah Rukh and his wife Gauri have not been able to meet Aryan in jail. The legal proceedings have apparently impacted Shah Rukh’s work schedule as well. Pinkvilla reported that newspaper Dainik Bhaskar as saying that the Spain shoot for Shah Rukh’s movie ‘Pathan’ has been called off for the time being. Reports claim that director Siddharth Anand had left for Spain on October 2 but had to come back to Indian after the case began.

Parts of Shah Rukh’s other movie ‘Atlee’ are being shot with the actor’s body double Prashant Walde for “long shots and the over the shoulder sequences to ensure that the dates of the other artistes are being utilised,” a source revealed.