Mumbai: The Bombay High Court will continue hearing the bail plea of Aryan Khan, the son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan who has been arrested in a drugs case, on Thursday when the NCB will present its arguments.
Justice N W Sambre began hearing the bail application on Tuesday. On Wednesday Aryan Khan's counsel Mukul Rohatgi, co-accused Arbaaz Merchant's lawyer Amit Desai and advocate Ali Kaashif Khan Deshmukh who appeared for Munmun Dhamecha completed their arguments.
After the hearing which went on for over two hours, Justice Sambre said he would hear Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, who is representing the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), on Thursday.
"Tomorrow we will try to finish it," the judge said.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Aryan Khan, argued that the arrest was a direct infringement of constitutional provisions as the arrest memo did not give the "true and correct grounds".
Senior counsel Amit Desai, appearing for Merchant, pointed out that the special court for Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act on Tuesday granted bail to two other accused in the case — Manish Rajgaria and Avin Sahu.
"The allegations against them are also the same. In fact, there was recovery of 2.6 grams of ganja (cannabis) from one of the accused and the second had said that he had consumed," Desai said. "If not on (the ground of) parity but on liberty these boys (Aryan Khan and Merchant) should be granted bail...Release them on bail with strict conditions," Desai argued.
He further told the court that the charge of conspiracy and abetment was invoked in the case by the NCB as an afterthought.
Instead of arresting them, the NCB should have first issued them a notice under section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (under which an accused is asked to appear and record a statement in minor offenses), the lawyer said.
"What was the need to arrest them at that time when conspiracy charge was not even applied," Desai said, adding that the charge of possession of small quantity of drugs only attracts one year's imprisonment, so it was a minor offense.