My case different from Aryan Khan, no incriminating WhatsApp chats: Co-accused Avin Sahu to NDPS Court

Aryan Khan and Avin Sahu were both arrested without drugs, but there are no WhatsApp chats implicating the latter, Sahu's lawyer told a Mumbai Court on Thursday while arguing a bail application filed in the cruise ship drug case..Sahu, a passenger on the cruise and co-accused in the case, was charged with consumption of drugs. He filed for bail before the Special NDPS Court earlier this week. Advocate Sana Raees Khan, representing Sahu, informed the Court that the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had intercepted him after the cruise returned to the coast.NCB claimed that Sahu had accepted having consumed ganja while he was on the ship. However, Sahu's lawyer argued that there was no blood sample taken to corroborate his statement. .Sahu's lawyer also argued that although there were factual similarities in the cases, considering Sahu and Khan were found without drugs, there were certain distinguishing features in their cases. "No incriminating WhatsApp chats like that which has been found with Aryan Khan has been found with Sahu. Khan had disclosed names of peddler, but Sahu has not given any names. Aryan Khan had exclusive knowledge of some peddler which the investigators could not find from him, but there was no such knowledge of Sahu," she said. .The only evidence against Sahu was his own statement, which had already been retracted, his lawyer said."There is no progress in the investigation against Sahu. The reply filed by NCB shows that. The accused does not have any criminal antecedents. Just because he was present on the cruise, he cannot be charged for conspiracy mechanically. Reformation should be taken into consideration," advocate Khan argued. .Along with Sahu's bail application, Additional Sessions Judge VV Patil also heard two other bail applications - one of Aachit Kumar, who was named by Aryan Khan and his friend and co-accused Arbaaz Merchant for allegedly being a part of a 'ganja trafficking network'. Kumar was termed by the NCB as a "drug peddler.".Advocate Ashwin Thool for Kumar argued that the word 'drug peddler' had huge ramifications and that the NCB ought to be cautious before throwing the word around. "There should be something, at least a transaction to show that he is labelled as a peddler," Thool said. .He argued that Kumar was merely a 22-year-old student studying in London for the past three years who had returned home due to the pandemic. "He is here because of the lockdown and he would be peddling for what 2.6 grams of drugs? Do they have any evidence to show that Aachit and Aryan and Arbaaz have interacted in the last one year? They have common friends, seniors or juniors from school so they may have interacted at some point," Thool argued. .To substantiate his argument of illegal detention, Thool showed the Court CCTV footage of Kumar's residence, according to which NCB officials had come at 2:45 pm on October 6, 2021 to detain him. "They claim a search was done by NCB officials before they went inside the house, but the CCTV footage shows otherwise. They took Kumar away by 5:15 pm, and even then there were no panch witnesses. Two panch witnesses came at 6:17 pm and then they left in 20 minutes," Thool pointed out.He added that the CCTV footage falsifies their panchnama and hence, it could not be relied upon. He said,"Can there be any veracity to this panchnama? This cannot be relied on as it is concocted and fabricated.".The Court also heard Advocate Taraq Sayed appearing for another accused Manish Rajgarhiya, who was found with 2.4 gms of ganja. Sayed argued that since his arrest, no new material has come up and he was still charged only for consumption. The chain of drugs being passed from seller and buyer can be established only with investigation and there should be a common objective between all accused of conspiracy, Sayed contended. "But what is the connection with the other accused? Nothing! People from all walks of life came at different time and the recoveries were all different. The prosecution has to show the connection. It suits them to say that accused are connected," Sayed argued. .Sayed also mentioned the case of Rhea Chakraborty, who was arrested in a drug case linked to the late Sushant Singh Rajput. "They arrested 33 people. But it did not mean that all the accused knew each other. There are groups of people who know each other. They take their mobile phone. On my phone, if there are 10 names they arrest those and try to show a connection," Sayed highlighted.