New Delhi | Jagran Entertainment Desk: The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan, who was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on October 2 in connection with the drugs-on-cruise case after the anti-drugs agency raided a rave party on board the Cordelia Cruise off the Mumbai coast.
Waiting for his release, Aryan Khan, who is currently lodged at Mumbai's Arthur Road jail as Qaidi Number 956, has spent over three weeks inside the prison after a Magistrate Court sent him to judicial custody on October 7. Shortly after the Bombay High Court announced its verdict granting bail to the 23-year-old star kid, the Arthur Road jail authorities informed him about his bail.
According to the jail officials, Aryan Khan was happy to receive the information about getting bail and also expressed his gratitude to the prison staff. The information was conveyed to him at around 6 pm on Thursday.
The jail officials, as quoted by news agency ANI, said that Aryan promised to provide financial help to the families of some prisoners he got acquainted with during his stay in the jail. Further, the 23-year-old also promised legal help to some of the inmates he spent his time with during his 25-day imprisonment in the Arthur Road jail.
Aryan Khan was on Thursday granted bail by the Bombay High Court, 25 days after his arrest by the NCB in the case of seizure of banned drugs aboard a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast earlier this month, a drugs bust that triggered a series of controversies and put the central agency and its officials under the spotlight. A single bench of Justice N W Sambre also granted bail to his co-accused Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha.
Outside the court premises, Arbaaz's father Aslam Merchant, a lawyer by profession, welcomed the decision, but said his son and Aryan Khan have undergone an agony of "34,560 minutes in jail".
Now, the legal team of Aryan Khan will have to wait till they get the high court's operative order for taking further steps towards securing his release from jail. Once the high court gives the order copy on Aryan Khan's bail, his lawyers will have to take it to a special court hearing the NDPS cases along with other necessary documents, like sureties.
The special court will then issue the release papers, which will have to be submitted to the jail superintendent by 6 pm to secure his release this evening. In case of any delay in the procedure, Aryan Khan will have to spend one more night at the Arthur Road jail in central Mumbai, where he is currently lodged, and could be released on Saturday.
(With ANI, PTI Inputs)