Shawdesh desk:

A team of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Thursday visited Mannat, the residence of Shah Rukh Khan in Mumbai, hours after the renowned actor visited the city’s Arthur Road Jail to meet his son Aryan, who has been behind bars since October 3 in connection with the cruise drugs case. According to reports, the NCB officers went to Shah Rukh Khan’s house to collect some documents and not to conduct a raid; however, additional confirmation from the federal agency is still awaited in this regard.

A team of NCB also visited the house of actor Ananya Panday, who has been summoned today by the federal agency for questioning and is likely to appear before the investigators at 2pm today.

Visuals posted by the ANI news agency on Twitter showed the NCB officials arriving at the residences of both the Bollywood actors. In a subsequent series of tweets, the agency showed the NCB team waiting before the gates of Shah Rukh Khan’s residence, departing the site several moments later.

Earlier this day, visuals surfaced of Shah Rukh Khan visiting the Arthur Road prison to meet his son Aryan. The meeting lasted for 20 minutes.

Aryan Khan was arrested on October 3 in connection with a drug seizure on a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast. The NCB team had at mid-sea busted the alleged drugs party aboard a Cordelia Cruise ship that was on its way to Goa. Aryan Khan, and his fellow cruise members Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, were detained by the officials following the drugs raid in connection with the case.

After a series of bail hearings, a special NDPS court in Mumbai rejected the bail applications of all three accused on Wednesday, after observing that Khan, Merchant, and Dhamecha acted in conspiracy with each other and that all of them are connected in the same thread. The judge accepted the Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) argument that all the accused were part of a large drug network.

Among other observations, the court noted that Aryan Khan is in touch with other drug dealers. “In the case at hand, material placed on record reveals that there is incriminating material in the form of WhatsApp chats, etc which shows the nexus of the applicant / accused no. 1 with suppliers and peddlers,” the judge said in his 21-page order.

In Khan’s WhatsApp chats, there is a reference to “bulk quantity” and “hard drugs” and “there is prima facie material showing that accused No 1 was in contact with persons dealing in prohibited narcotic substances”, the order added.

Now, the Bombay high court will be hearing Aryan’s bail application on October 26. His lawyers immediately moved the high court after the special Mumbai court rejected his plea for bail. Merchant and Dhamecha’s lawyers, too, are expected to follow a similar track.

A total of 20 people, including two Nigerian nationals, Delhi-based event management professionals, and Mumbai-based drug peddlers, have so far been arrested in the case related to the seizure of drugs from the ship.