Investigator motivated to implicate Aryan Khan, says special investigation team

An enquiry by an NCB special investigation team found the investigating officer in the drugs-on-cruise case was "motivated to somehow implicate Aryan Khan". The team led by the Narcotics Control Bureau's former zonal director Sameer Wankhede was assigned to probe the initial investigation into the drugs.

SN Pradhan, the Director-General of the NCB, yesterday said there were "procedural irregularities'' in the initial probe. He added that it happens in the rarest of rare cases and action will be taken against the responsible officers, reported NDTV.

Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, was arrested after a drug raid on a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast. After spending 22 days in jail and having been denied bail at first in October, he was given a clean chit yesterday. The NCB submitted a 6,000-page charge sheet in which 14 of the accused. Khan's name was not mentioned in the document.

The SIT said in an internal communication that it appears that the investigating officer was motivated to somehow implicate Aryan Khan in the drugs case. The internal report added that courts are very lenient with people from whom drugs are not recovered and against whom there is no cogent evidence, reported NDTV.

The report further said the courts sometimes question the integrity of the IO over doubts of them being motivated. It added that Khan's phone and data including WhatsApp chats were seized by the IO without proper procedure. The SIT mentioned the Supreme Court has repeatedly questioned the value of WhatsApp chats as evidence.

The arresting team did not recover any drugs from Khan.

After Aryan Khan was arrested and denied bail, Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik accused Mr Wankhede of trying to frame Aryan Khan. The incident soon became a political controversy and the NCB formed a special team to examine the probe.