[BREAKING] Aryan Khan drug case: Mumbai court grants additional time of 60 days to NCB for filing chargesheet

A Mumbai court on Thursday granted 60 additional days to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to file chargesheet in the cruise ship drug case in which Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan is the prime accused..Special Judge under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act VV Patil pronounced the verdict today after hearing NCB and the counsel for the only two accused in judicial custody for over two hours on Wednesday..NCB SIT had sought for extension on the following grounds:The agency was yet to examine Kiran P Gosavi panch witness in the case as the agency was awaiting for requisite orders permitting them to interrogate and record statement.That another panch witness Prabhakar Sail also has turned hostile. Sail is a witness who deposed on affidavit, which NCB tried to bring on record in the case.That the 20 accused arrested in the case are from different field and walks of life and the SIT is still in process of recording their statements; many of the accused did not turn up for investigation on time which has resulted in unintentional delay.That some of the accused purportedly gave wrong passwords of mobile/ laptop/ tablets which are in the custody of NCB which is causing hurdles in extraction and forensic examination of the same is getting delayed.That the agency is also trying to find out details of contacts and addresses of the two Nigerian nationals arrested in the case.That the money trail and consideration paid for purchasing drugs is also underway, to unearth the financial angle.That statements of 15 key suspects (till date) are still to be recorded.That they have completed their investigation against Mohak Jaswal, Gomit Chopra, Nupur Satija, Abdul Kadar Shaikh, Chinedu Igwe and Okoro Uzeoma, while investigation against others is still underway..The defence counsel had opposed the plea stating that the application was a ruse to continue keeping the detained accused behind bars.It was also stated that the agency could file a chargesheet now and a supplementary chargesheet later.They opposed the application stating that the application was not compelling enough to get extension and the grounds mentioned therein failed to disclose which of the accused were not co-operating with the investigation as alleged.The defence also argued that the present application was not only affecting people in custody but also the 18 others who are out on bail.They concluded by stating that analysis of digital data not having received was not a ground for extension of time to file the chargesheet..Special Public Prosecutor Advait Sethna appeared for NCB. Advocates Kushal Mor and Apoorv Srivastava appeared for Shaikh. Advocate Ayaz Khan with Horakh Limaye appeared for Igwe.