A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court, seeking a high-level judicial enquiry into the mala fide style, approach and affairs of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) at Mumbai and it’s officials targeting the film celebrities and few models since the past two years in connection with possession, sale and consumption of banned drugs.

Filed by Shiv Sena leader Kishore Tiwari, the plea drew attention of the Court towards the protection of Fundamental and Human Rights of Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, who was arrested from a Goa-bound ship on October 3 under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act 1985 by NCB in Mumbai, for alleged consumption and sale of drugs.

It was further alleged that law enforcement agencies like NCB were abusing position and trying to deprive the basic human rights of a person accused under the NDPS Act and by misconstruing the provisions of the law, poor and innocent people were being put behind the bars.

The plea highlighted the case registered by NCB, Mumbai under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt of India, New Delhi, which was under the judicial cognisance of Special NDPS Court at Mumbai, in which few innocent people, including a 23-year-old boy Aryan Shah Rukh Khan, has been kept in jail for the past 17 nights, because of failure of Special Court in early disposal of their bail applications in the most unfortunate and highly filmy manner.

Accusing the NCB and its officials of ‘vendetta’ by targeting select celebrities, Tiwari demanded a probe into the role of the central narcotics agency and the official, whose wife is a well-known Marathi actor, in direct competition with the other stars and celebs being hounded.

“It is important to note that the charge that the NCB officer concerned is acting to take vendetta against select film celebrity and model because the fact is that

A) His wife is a well-known Marathi actor performing in Mumbai film industry.

B) Apparently, she has not been able to make it Big in Bollywood, so this ongoing NCB operation seems out of a personal vendetta only.

C) In the past 15-18 months, what motive for targeting only top film personalities, their families, national-international models, producers-directors, etc. Starting from the Sushant Singh Rajput death matter, the probe is totally diverted in an unrelated direction.

D) The alleged NCB seizures are miniscule Jokes, compared to Mumbai Police achievements, or the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), which last month seized 3000 kg drugs from Mundra Port in Gujarat.

E) With recent shocking exposes on NCB made by Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik, it’s high time the NCB Mumbai and pan-India must be probed by an SC judge to unravel the rackets and the truth, added the plea.

Aryan is currently lodged in Arthur Road prison in central Mumbai in the case of alleged seizure of drugs from a cruise ship. Aryan, along with seven others, was detained and later arrested on October 3 after the NCB swooped on a luxury Goa-bound Cordelia cruise ship to bust an alleged rave party on October 2.

A Mumbai Sessions Court on Thursday reserved its order on the bail application of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, forcing the three to stay behind bars till October 20, for their alleged involvement in the sale and consumption of drugs.

The three were arrested on October 3 from Goa-bound Cordelia cruise ship off the coast of Mumbai by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

The Mumbai Sessions court is going for a short vacation from October 15 to 19, on account of Dusshera. Aryan’s Advocate Amit Desai pleaded for the freedom of his client as against Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Anil Singh, who contended that everyone should have equal treatment before the law.

Special Judge V.V. Patil said he will try to give the order on October 20.

Aryan Khan – accused no 1 for the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) – allegedly “indulged in illicit drug trafficking” and was in touch with “some persons abroad who appear to be a part of an International Drug Network” to procure a “bulk quantity of hard drugs”, the anti-narcotics agency said in a statement to the court on Wednesday. The ASG representing the Central agency also referred to on-record statements to claim that Aryan has been consuming drugs for the past few years.

On the other hand, Desai told the court that Aryan was “not even on the cruise” raided by NCB officers on October 2, so the allegation of drug trafficking against him is “absurd”.

The Supreme Court on Thursday told the Centre that the findings of bail proceedings of actor Rhea Chakraborty in Bombay High Court cannot be challenged just over observations made in it.

The apex court was hearing the plea filed by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) challenging the order granting bail to Chakraborty in the drug-related charges linked to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput in Mumbai. The NCB said the HC erred in granting bail to Chakraborty as it ignored the observations of the agency.

The three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and Justices A.S. Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian was hearing the plea when CJI Bobde observed prima facie that while the bail order can be challenged, the findings in it cannot be challenged. The bench told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, that it found some things very difficult to understand. Mehta had said the observations by the Bombay High Court judge had made the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances “unworkable”.

Mehta added that they will amend the petition and include a challenge against the grant of bail. The court deferred the next hearing to March 22, Monday.

Rhea Chakraborty had got bail on October 7 last year upon furnishing a bond of Rs 1 lakh. She had spent 28 days in custody. Chakraborty’s counsel had contended that the NCB lacked jurisdiction to probe the matter in view of the Supreme Court order of August 19 directing to hand over all investigations in the Sushant case to the CBI, the offences under which the accused were nabbed by the NCB were bailable and the charges under the NDPS Act section 217A against the accused did not have supporting evidence.

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