Mumbai:

Aryan Khan, the son of megastar Shah Rukh Khan, arrested in a case involving a rave party in a cruise ship, will no longer be in the custody of the drugs-control agency but will be lodged in jail, a Mumbai court has said. Similar orders were given for the seven other accused, including his friend Arbaaz Merchant. “I am of the view that no custodial interrogation is required as sufficient time was given,” the judge said. Within minutes, Aryan Khan’s lawyer moved a petition for bail, which will be heard tomorrow.

The 23-year-old and the other accused, however, will spend the night at the offices of the drugs control agency, since the transfer hours for the jail is over and the mandatory Covid test is not done.

Shah Rukh and Gauri Khan were not present in court. But they will now be able to meet him — the court allowed family visits at the offices of the agency.

Aryan Khan was arrested on Saturday after a raid on a cruise ship going from Mumbai to Goa. A total of 16 people have been arrested so far — including those that helped organise the event.

Though no drugs was found on him, the Narcotics Control Bureau — while seeking an extension of his custody that ends today — had made the case that his WhatsApp chats suggested involvement of international drug cartels and need deeper scrutiny.

Aryan Khan also has to be confronted with a couple of men who have been arrested, the agency contended in court, referring to Archit Kumar, who they said, was arrested on the basis of Aryan Khan’s statement yesterday.

“We cannot discuss what took the investigation team so much time to arrest the accused with whom they need to be confronted,” the court said.

The agency had said Archit Kumar was the person supplying him with drugs and in the WhatsApp chats between Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, payment for drugs were discussed.

“Police custody of an accused without cogent reason would amount to violation of fundamental rights,” court said, adding that the accused cannot be sent to the custody of the investigating agency on “vague grounds”.

Aryan Khan’s lawyer Satish Manshinde had made the case that no drugs were found on him and he cannot be held responsible for the seizures made from others. But Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh had argued that the case “has to be looked at in its entirety”.

Aryan Khan also contended that his WhatsApp chats did not contain anything incriminating. One of his chats with Archit Kumar was about football, he had said.

Regarding extension of custody to confront Aryan Khan with Archit Kumar, Mr Manshinde said, “Archit is the only one — They could have confronted me today. People who are put in judicial custody can also be confronted when required. They did not confront me for two nights. Nothing was done as far as I am concerned”.

To this, the agency responded that the arrest was made yesterday, drawing the admonition from the court.