The Mumbai Sessions Court will commence hearing the bail application filed by Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan who is the prime accused in a drug case initiated by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) after carrying out a raid on a cruise ship.
Khan was arrested for contravention of Sections 8(c), 20(b), 27, 28, 29 and 35 of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
NCB has alleged that it has seized 13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams of mephedrone MD, 21 gram charas and 22 pills of MDMA ecstasy.
Khan's bail application is coming up for hearing today before a Mumbai sessions court, 10 days after he was first detained by the NCB near the International Termination of the Mumbai Port.
Earlier his bail plea was rejected by the Magistrate.
The following is a quick recap of the events from the past 10 days which Khan has spent in jail - first under NCB custody and subsequently in judicial custody.
October 2 (Saturday night): NCB apparently based on a specific information it had received, conducted a raid on the cruise ship which was about to set sail from the terminal.
Khan was intercepted at the terminal even before he could board the ship and was interrogated and searched by the NCB officials.
Post such interrogation, he was taken to the NCB office where he was allegedly detained till the next date.
October 3: By Sunday afternoon, the NCB registered a first information report, FIR no 94 of 2021 in which Khan was the prime accused.
News of his arrest was officially confirmed by 3 pm.
Khan was produced for remand before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) RK Rajebhosale after 7 pm along with co-accused Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha.
After a brief hearing, Khan was remanded to one day NCB custody.
October 4: Khan's remand along with the other two co-accused was extended till October 7, 2021.
There were five other accused who were also produced by NCB and were remanded to NCB custody by ACMM RM Nerlikar.
The five were Mohak Jaswal, Vikrant Chhoker, Nupur Satija, Gomit Chopra and Ishmeet Singh.
October 5: NCB produced four more accused for remand in the case. The accused were Abdul Kadir, Shreyas Nair, Manish Rajgariya and Avin Sahu.
All four were remanded to NCB custody till October 11, 2021.
Meanwhile Merchant moved a bail application before the ACMM and also filed an application seeking CCTV footage of the terminal from where he and Khan were arrested.
October 6: Continuing their string of arrests from the cruise, NCB arrested four more persons who were allegedly part of the organising team for the event/ party on the cruise.
The accused, Gopal Anand, Samir Saigal, Manav Singhal and Bhaskar Arora, were remanded to NCB custody till October 14, 2021.
October 7: NCB's plea seeking extension of custody was rejected and Khan was remanded to judicial custody along with seven other accused.
Immediately thereafter, Khan moved his applications for bail before the ACMM.
The Magistrate granted time to NCB to respond on the maintainability of the bail plea and adjourned the hearing in Khan's application along with applications of Merchant and Dhamecha for the next day.
October 8: Judge Nerlikar took up the three bail applications for hearing. After a marathon hearing of about 5 hours, he rejected the applications holding that the applications were not maintainable.
During the same hearing, two more accused were remanded to NCB custody. One Aachit Kumar was remanded to NCB custody till October 9, 2021; the second, a foreign national, Chinedu Igwe, was remanded to NCB custody till October 11, 2021.
The same evening, Khan moved the Sessions Court for bail.
October 9: Kumar was remanded to judicial custody after NCB prayed for the same in their application.
October 10: An alleged supplier linked to Merchant, Shivraj Ramdas, was remanded to NCB custody till October 11, 2021 by Holiday Magistrate ACMM SD Kamat.
October 11: Khan's bail application was mentioned before the Special Court under the NDPS Act for urgent hearing as it was not listed on the board.
As NCB sought time to file a reply to the application, the plea was posted for hearing to October 13, 2021.
The Court also posted four other bail pleas by co-accused for hearing indicating that it will start hearing the bail plea with Khan's application.
The ACMM meanwhile remanded a 20th accused to judicial custody till October 25, 2021.
The latest accused, the second foreign national arrested in the case, was one Okaro Uzeoma a Nigerian national who was remanded to judicial custody with Kadir, Nair, Rajgariya, Sahu, Igwe and Shivraj.
With Uzeoma, NCB has arrested 20 persons in the case so far.
October 13: Special Judge VV Patil will commence hearing Khan's bail application.