[BREAKING] No positive evidence against Aryan Khan for conspiracy: Bombay High Court in bail order [READ ORDER]

The speaking order of Bombay High Court granting bail to Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan in the cruise ship drug case has been released by the Bombay High Court (Aryan Khan v. Union of India)..In the 14-page order, Justice Nitin Sambre has said that there was no prima facie evidence against Aryan Khan and two other co-accused Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha for the offence of conspiracy under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act)."Having regard to the material brought on record by the Respondent on the issue of conspiracy, this Court prima facie has not noticed any positive evidence against the Applicants on the said issue. This Court is of the opinion that the claim put forth by the Respondent that Applicants should be considered to have intention to commit an offence under the NDPS Act, having found in possession of commercial quantity, in the backdrop of case of hatching conspiracy is liable to be rejected," the Court said.The Court said that merely because the accused were travelling on the cruise, cannot be a ground to invoke the offence of Section 29 against the accused."This Court is required to be sensitive to fact that there has to be presence of basic material in the form of evidence so as to substantiate the case of conspiracy against the Applicants," the judge added.Khan along with Merchant and Dhamecha were granted bail by the High Court on October 28. The Court had delivered a short order while the speaking order setting out the reasons was not delivered until today.In the order made available on the High Court website today, the Court noted that no drug was found in Khan's possession while the quantity recovered from Merchant and Dhamecha were 'small' quantities under the NDPS Act. In such a scenario, in order to invoke offence of conspiracy against the accused, there has to be positive evidence about an agreement to do an unlawful act or to do lawful act by unlawful means and such agreement must precede with meeting of minds, the Court said.But there was no such material in the instant case, the judge held.Pertinently, the Court observed that the WhatsApp chats of Aryan Khan did not have anything objectionable suggesting that there was conspiracy on his part to commit offences under NDPS Act."After having gone through the Whats-App chats extracted from Applicant/Accused no. 1’s (Khan) phone, nothing objectionable could be noticed to suggest that Applicant nos. 1 & 2 (Merchant) or all three applicants alongwith other Accused persons in agreement have meeting of minds and have hatched conspiracy committing the offence in question," the order said.There is hardly any positive evidence on record to convince this Court that all the accused persons with common intention agreed to commit unlawful act, the Court underscored."Rather the investigation carried out till this date suggests that Applicant/Accused nos. 1 & 2 (Khan and Merchant) were travelling independent of Applicant/Accused no. 3 (Dhamecha) and there was no meeting of minds on the aforesaid issue," the Bench ruled.Importantly, the Court reiterated that confessional statements made by the accused to NCB will have no value as held by the Supreme Court in the matter of Tofan Singh v. State of Tamil Nadu.Since the offence of conspiracy is no made out, the rigours of Section 37 on grant of bail will not apply, the Court said..Khan was taken into custody by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on October 2, 2021 after the NCB raided a cruise ship en route to Goa from Mumbai. Khan was arrested from the terminal to the cruise.He 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.Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate RM Nerlikar had rejected his bail application, holding that it was not maintainable as only the special court of sessions was entitled to hear the bail plea.Subsequently, Khan moved the special court seeking bail, which came to be rejected on October 20. He then moved the High Court in appeal.After the High Court granted bail on October 28, Khan and others were released from jail on October 30..[Read Order]