Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, March 2: There is no evidence that Aryan Khan, the son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, was involved in a larger drugs conspiracy or an international drugs trafficking syndicate, and there were several irregularities in the raid on the cruise ‘Cordelia’ during which he was arrested, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), has found.
In fact, contrary to NCB’s Mumbai unit’s charges, some of the SIT’s significant findings, as revealed by authorities, are: The raid was not video-recorded as required by the NCB manual, and the drugs recovered from multiple accused arrested in the case were shown as a single recovery. Aryan Khan was never in possession of drugs, so there was no need to take his phone and check his chats; the chats do not suggest Khan was part of any international syndicate; the raid was not video-recorded as required by the NCB manual; and the drugs recovered from multiple accused arrested in the case were shown as a single.
However, the SIT investigation isn’t over, and the final report to NCB Director General S N Pradhan could take a few months.
Highly premature to say that there's no evidence against Aryan Khan. Probe still in progress; recorded multiple statements. Have not reached any conclusion yet: SIT chief & NCB DDG (operation) Sanjay Singh on reports of no evidence against Aryan Khan in Cordelia cruise ship drug pic.twitter.com/oCiixvLu5c
— ANI (@ANI) March 2, 2022
The SIT investigation appears to raise more doubts about the raid itself, as well as the actions of Sameer Wankhede, the agency’s former Mumbai Zonal Unit director. Wankhede, who has since been returned to his parent cadre, has been interrogated several times by the SIT and the agency’s vigilance team in an attempt to learn the facts about the case.
