Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan granted bail in cruise ship drugs case

Aryan Khan, the 23-year-old son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, has been granted bail by the Bombay High Court in a drugs case, according to the Hindustan Times.

The two other young men arrested with him, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, have also been granted bail, however, none of them will be released today.

The Times of India reported that the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had opposed Aryan's bail plea and accused him of being a "regular consumer of drugs" as well as involved in illicit drug trafficking. They also argued that he was in "conscious possession of contraband".

He was arrested during an October 2 raid on a cruise ship in Mumbai and charged with possession of narcotics. He was remanded into NCB custody till October 7 and presented in court. He was presented in court again on October 8, October 14 and October 20 his bail plea was rejected each time. He then finally approached the Bombay High Court and was granted relief after three straight days of hearings.

The NCB said it recovered 13 grams of cocaine, five grams of MD, 21 grams of charas and 22 pills of MDMA, and 133,000 INR during the raid, however, none of the recovered narcotics were in Aryan’s possession. The NCB argued that that was immaterial and said he was a “regular consumer of drugs” according to his WhatsApp conversations. Aryan's lawyer, on the other hand, contended that the conversations were taken out of context and did not relate to the use of drugs.

Aryan received a lot of support from his father's Bollywood colleagues, including from big stars such as Hrithik Roshan. Several other celebrities also stood up for him and said he was being unfairly targeted.