Drugs-on-cruise case: NCB dismisses ‘non-availability of evidence’ news reports against Aryan Khan, says SIT probe still on

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Wednesday dismissed media reports which inferred that there was “non-availability of evidence” against Aryan Khan in the drugs-on-cruise case. The NCB through a Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was constituted to look into the drug nexus leading back to the cruise, termed all such media reports as “mere speculations.”

NCB Deputy Director General Sanjay Singh, who is currently heading the SIT on the drugs-on-cruise case, dismissed the reports as false and said that the statements made were not cross-checked with the agency before being published.



"The media reports on non-availability of evidence against Aryan Khan are not true and just speculations. These statements were not cross-checked with the NCB before being published," news agency ANI reported.

Singh also said that the “investigation is not yet complete and it is premature to say anything at this stage.”

Earlier on Wednesday it was reported in certain sections of the media that the anti-drug agency had found no evidence to connect the 24-year-old with an international drug conspiracy. The news reports cited unnamed sources in the central agency.


Singh, while dismissing the reports, emphasised that the probe in the drugs-on-cruise case is still in progress and multiple statements have been recorded.

“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,” the SIT chief, a 1996 batch IPS officer who took charge of the case in November last year, said.

Aryan, the son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, was arrested along with two friends and 20 others from a luxury yacht, ‘Cordelia Cruise’, headed to Goa. The arrest followed after an NCB team - headed by Sameer Wankhede at that time - raided it on the intervening night of October 2-3 and allegedly recovered drugs from revellers aboard the cruise. The actor’s son and the others were held on charges of drug conspiracy and consuming drugs.

Khan spent close to a month in Mumbai’s Arthur Road jail after his bail plea was dismissed by a local court. He was finally granted bail by the Bombay High Court on October 28 and was released from prison two days later.

So far, the NCB has arrested 20 people, including two Nigerian nationals.

The NCB's SIT will file a charge sheet in the drugs-on-cruise case, and is currently seeking legal opinion.