The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) found several lapses while investigating the drugs-on-cruise case in which Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan was arrested last year.
According to the report submitted by the vigilance department on Wednesday to the Delhi headquarters, the 24-year-old was ‘deliberately targeted’ in the case and several other irregularities were listed too.
The report read, “The investigation team of NCB has found the role of 7 to 8 NCB officers suspicious in this case. The Vigilance team of NCP found in its investigation that the Aryan Khan case was not investigated properly as Aryan Khan was deliberately targeted and why it was done is not yet known.”
The investigation also highlighted ‘suspicious behaviour’ of the NCB officers in this case – which grabbed global headlines in October 2021. The SIT recommended action against the officers posted in the unit of Mumbai NCB, including the name of the zonal director of Mumbai NCB.
The NCB has recorded the statements of 65 people.
The federal anti-drug agency had instituted an inquiry after several lacunae were found in the probe of the alleged drug seizure from a cruise ship here last October.
Khan Jr was arrested on October 3 during a raid on a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast on its way to Goa. He was lodged in Mumbai’s Arthur Road jail. He got bail after three weeks (25 days) because the agency failed to substantiate its charges against him.He got bail after three weeks (25 days) because the agency failed to substantiate its charges against him.
SRK finally met his son Aryan for the first time since his arrest on October 21 after the Maharashtra government relaxed the family visiting rules at the Arthur Road jail.
This May, the NCB filed a 6,000-page charge sheet against 14 accused in the cruise drug bust case, excluding the name of five others including Aryan Khan.
( curtesy economictimes.indiatimes.com)
