Aryan Khan drugs case: NCB lawyer questions, "Why was Aryan on the ship?"

An extended hearing was held in a Mumbai court as the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) sought an extension of custody for Aryan Khan and other accused Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, who had been arrested in a drug case. Aryan, Arbaaz, and Munmun were all sentenced to additional custody until October 7. During the lengthy hearing, however, the concerned lawyers engaged in animated and interesting debate. 

The NCB was represented at the hearing by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Anil C Singh and counsel Advait M Sethna, while lawyer Satish Maneshinde represented Aryan Khan and advocate Taraq Sayed represented Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha. 

Throughout the proceedings, Anil C Singh, the Attorney General, attempted to draw parallels between the Aryan Khan case and the Rhea Chakraborty case from last year. Advocate Maneshinde responded by pointing out differences between the two cases.

The ASG then told the court that he could prove Aryan's involvement in other circumstances, to which Maneshinde responded with more rebuttals. During this exchange, the ASG said, "Here it is (the contraband recovered from the ship)." Maneshinde responded, "The ship is not mine." You should have arrested the other thousand people on the ship." 

However, that was not the end of the debates. A little later, Maneshinde said, “There is nothing to establish my connection with people on the ship.” To that, the ASG retorted, “Why was he (Aryan) on the ship?” Before Maneshinde could reply, Taraq Sayed retorted, “1300 people were on the ship. It is not even their case that No. 1 (Aryan Khan) was distributing. He can buy the ship but…”.Maneshinde then interjected into the conversation. There was a lot of back-and-forth between the counsels, and there were a lot of heated arguments. 

The court eventually decided that the accused should be held in custody until October 7 so that the NCB could conduct a fair and effective investigation to prove the involvement or innocence of all of the accused.