Aryan Khan consumed drugs, Arbaaz Merchant hid charas in shoes, claims NCB panchnama

Aryan Khan consumed drugs and his friend Arbaaz Merchant hid six grams of charas (cannabis) in his shoes so that they could "have a blast" on the cruise ship they went to on October 2, according to a panchnama filed by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the Mumbai cruise drug case.

A panchnama is a record of the witness testimony prepared by the police during the investigation of a crime.

It was recorded when the NCB officials approached Aryan Khan and Arbaaz Merchant while carrying out raids on board the Cordella cruise liner off the coast of Mumbai after they received a tip-off that banned narcotics were being used on the ship.

According to the panchnama accessed by India Today , NCB officer Ashish Rajan Prasad explained the provisions of Section 50 of the NDPS Act to them. The investigating officer then asked Aryan Khan and Arbaaz Merchant if they were in possession of any narcotic substance, to which Arbaaz Merchant replied yes, mentioning he has charas hidden away inside his shoe.

Merchant then voluntarily took out a ziplock bag containing a "black, sticky substance" from his shoe. Upon testing the substance with a DD kit, the substance was confirmed to be charas. NCB officials recovered a total of six grams of charas from him.

Arbaaz Merchant told the NCB officer that he consumes drugs with Aryan Khan who also admitted to consuming charas and corroborated that they had been planning to use the drug seized from Arbaaz Merchant while aboard the cruise liner.

Two panchas - Kiran Gosavi and Prabhakar Roghoji Sen - were present when the panchnama was recorded. Kiran Gosavi identified as a private detective was seen in a viral selfie with Aryan Khan clicked at the Mumbai International Cruise Terminal last Sunday, before the star kid was arrested.

According to documents, Gosavi had given different addresses in two separate panchnamas. He is already in a tight spot after Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik questioned his presence as a private party during the arrests.

A Mumbai court, on Friday, rejected the bail plea of Aryan Khan on the grounds that the same was not maintainable, meaning the judge did not have the jurisdiction to hear the bail application. Khan is thus kept in custody until he can file a new plea on Monday since the courts are closed for the weekend.

Earlier, Aryan Khan and seven other accused in the case, including his friend Arbaaz Merchant, were remanded in 14-day judicial custody by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate RM Nerlikar.

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