Shah Rukh Khan’s son arrested by India's anti-narcotics agency in cruise ship drug bust

NEW DELHI: Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan Khan, and two others have been arrested by the Narcotics Management Bureau on Sunday after the company raided a rave celebration and seized medication from a luxurious cruise ship off the Mumbai coast.

Officers from the NCB had reportedly boarded the ship dressed as passengers on Saturday evening earlier than conducting the raid based mostly on “particular intelligence inputs” and investigations spanning two weeks. The ship was sure for Goa.

In a press release on Sunday, the NCB stated it had detained Aryan and 7 others for questioning after recovering banned medication comparable to MDMA, ecstasy, cocaine, MD or mephedrone, and charts from the cruise ship.

“All eight, together with Aryan Khan, are being questioned. After questioning, all of the eight accused can be produced within the courtroom, and it’ll take a choice,” stated.

In line with media experiences, Aryan and two others had been taken for medical assessments to the JJ Hospital on Sunday and was be produced in courtroom in a while Sunday, the place the NCB deliberate to hunt their remand for additional questioning.

Aryan, 23, accomplished his education in Britain earlier than graduating from the College of Southern California. He’s the eldest son of Shah Rukh and Gauri Khan.

The couple even have a daughter, Suhana Khan, and one other son, AbRam

Shah Rukh, 55, who is likely one of the world’s most well-known actors, starring in additional than 107 Hindi movies. In 2017, Forbes stated his earnings amounted to an estimated $38 million from endorsements and films, inserting him on the sixty fifth spot in its record of prime 100 celebrities.

The actor enjoys an unimaginable social media presence with 42 million followers on Twitter, owns the Kolkata Knight Riders cricket group, which performs for the Indian Premier League and runs a profitable manufacturing home named the Pink Chillies Leisure.

Bollywood actor Sunil Shetty got here to Aryan’s defence on Sunday, urging the general public “to offer the kid a breather.”

“When a raid is carried out at a spot, many individuals are taken into custody. We assume {that a} explicit boy should have consumed it (the medication). The method is on. Let’s give that youngster a breather. Let actual experiences come out,” he stated throughout a TV debate.

The opposition Congress celebration additionally questioned the NCB’s rationale of detaining the “small fish” whereas accusing the federal government of ignoring a bigger haul of medicine elsewhere.

“NCB will get very busy arresting small fish on a cruise ship, however in relation to the most important fish of all of them — the 3000kg heroin smuggled from Adani’s Mundra port, NCB is totally mum,” Congress celebration’s spokesperson Dr. Shama Mohamed stated in a Twitter submit on Sunday.

On Sept. 21, 3,000kg of heroin was seized on the Mundra airport within the western state of Gujarat. The federal government has but to launch a probe into the drug haul, estimated to be value $3.1 million.

Authorities, nevertheless, stated they’d be “performing in an neutral method,” regardless of the presence of “some Bollywood hyperlinks” within the case.

“Within the course of, if some connections to Bollywood or wealthy folks emerge, so be it. We now have to behave inside the purview of the legislation,” NCB Chief S. N. Pradhan advised reporters on Sunday.

He added that the NCB had carried out greater than 300 “such raids within the final one yr” in Mumbai alone.

“We now have to maintain on working in Mumbai. When you take a look at the information, there should have been greater than 300 raids within the final one yr. It will proceed whether or not overseas nationals are concerned, movie business or wealthy persons are concerned,” he stated.

In September final yr, a few of Bollywood’s most outstanding actors, together with Deepika Padukone, have been questioned by the NCB in a wide-ranging drug probe in reference to the loss of life of Sushant Singh Rajput, a well-known actor, who was discovered useless at his residence in June.