Aryan Khan's Friend Arbaaz Merchant Moves For Bail, Seeks CCTV Footage In Cruise Ship Drug Case, Alleges That "Contraband Was Planted"

Merchant has claimed that despite allegedly recovering only six grams of 'small quantity of charas from him, NCB's remand application against him and Khan mentioned a general recovery of larger quantity of drugs in the case, on October 3.

He has further called the NCB's allegation of their "intention to board the ship" as false and bogus as the Classic Guest MV Empress Card, a prerequisite for entering the Cruise, was not found on him (Merchant) or Khan.

Merchant, Khan and Mummun Dhamecha were the first to be arrested in the alleged drug bust and produced before the court on Sunday, their custody was subsequently extended till Thursday. They have been charged under sections 8(c) read with sections 20b, 27, 28, 29 (conspiracy) and 35 under the NDPS Act.

At the time of their first remand, the NCB failed to mention individual recoveries and said they seized 13 grams of cocaine (intermediate quantity), 5 grams of MD (mephedrone) (intermediate quantity), 21 grams of charas (small quantity), 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy) (intermediate quantity) and Rs 1,33,000 at International Cruise Terminal, Mumbai.

The intermediate recoveries were subsequently found to be from other accused in the case.

"It is respectfully submitted that the prosecution has misguided and mislead this Hon'ble Court by concealing material facts "

"The department ought to have come up with clean hands before this court and prosecuted the accused persons individually for individual recoveries as each of these accused persons who are alleged to be passengers on a cruise ship and admittedly were travelling individually and not in a group," the plea states.

In the bail application filed through Advocate Taraq Sayed, Merchant claims that he can at the most be charged with consumption under 27 of the NDPS Act, punishment for which is maximum of 1 year and Rs. 20,000 fine.

"…in view of the fact that there is no bar to grant of bail and further that the maximum term of imprisonment prescribed may only be fine of Rs 20,000/-, it is humbly submitted that the Applicant is entitled for bail & no further custody of the Applicant is warranted," his plea states.

Merchant relies heavily on the seizure panchnama of the raid to say that he has no connection with the recoveries from the co-accused and section 29 (conspiracy) has been malafidely applied.

Didn't Intend to Board Cruise

"The MV Empress card is issued by luxury cruise liner MV Empress owned by Cordelia Cruises without which entry to the said Cruise is not permitted and therefore it is humbly submitted that the allegations that the Applicant and the Accused No. 1 (Aryan Khan) intended to board the said cruise is totally false, bogus, vague and concocted and therefore the entire case of the prosecution as against the Applicant fails."

Store CCTV Footage

Merchant has said that from the panchnama it is clear that CISF was deputed at International Terminal, Green Gate, Mumbai Port Trust, Fort, Mumbai and the entire port is under C.C. T.V. surveillance.

"It is humbly submitted that the said C.C. T.V. footage may be called for to check the veracity of the Panchnama, its contents and the entire case of the prosecution regarding the alleged recovery."

He has sought C.C. T.V. footage for 02.10.2021 at International Terminal, Green Gate, Mumbai.

According to him, the said C.C. T.V. footage will show that no contraband was recovered from the possession of the applicant and that the said contraband was planted by the N.C.B.

Additional Metropolitan Magistrate RM Nilekar has kept the bail application in abeyance since Merchant is still in NCB's custody till October 7, 2021.

Allegations Against Khan and Merchant

On Monday, the Additional Solicitor General sought the remand of these three accused (including Dhamecha). The remand states that "prima facie investigation reveals that there is incriminating material in the form of WhatsApp chats etc clearly showing the nexus of the accused with suppliers and peddlers on a regular basis."

As for Aryan Khan, the NCB said that "shocking and incriminating material has been found from him mobile phone which was seized. There and links in the form of pictures, chats etc pointing towards international drug trafficking.

Case

So far 16 persons have been arrested in the case and the alleged seizures are as follows.

Arbaaz Merchant: 6 gms charas

Aryan: alleged Consumer

Munmun Dhamecha: 5 grams charas

Vikrant Chhokar : 5 gm MD 10 gm cocaine (intermediate),

Ishmeet Chadha : 14 MDMA pills intermediate

Gomit Chopra: 4 pills of MDMA, 3 gms of cocaine

Nupur Setia - 4 MDMA pills intermediate

Mohak Jaswal: No recovery, he provided Nupur with pills

Abdul Sheikh - 54.3 gms mephedrone and 2.5 gms ecstasy (intermediary)

Shreyas Nair - 2 gms of charas

Manish Rajgarya- 2.4 gms of ganja

Avin Sahu – Consumer

Alleged event company organisers - Samir Sehgal, Bhaskar Arora, Manav Singhal and Gopal Anand