India’s antidrug agency arrests Shah Rukh Khan’s son in cruise party case

NEW DELHI: India’s antidrug agency has arrested Aryan Khan, the son of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, after a raid at a party on a cruise ship off the coast of Mumbai, local media reported on Sunday.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said in a statement that Khan and seven others were charged with purchase, possession and use of banned substances.
“Aryan Khan has been arrested, a few other detainees have also been arrested,” news channel India Today reported on Sunday afternoon from the NCB’s Mumbai office.
Khan was produced in court where the NCB was granted custody of him until Monday.
His lawyer, Satish Maneshinde, said the 23-year-old son of Bollywood’s most famous star was arrested based on only chat messages.
“Nothing has been found on him. He was arrested on the basis of chat only,” Maneshinde said in court. “Aryan had no ticket, no cabin or seat on board the cruise. He was there because he had been invited. He didn’t even have a boarding pass.”
NCB chief S. N. Pradhan told the media the agency’s raid followed tipoffs and officers were sent to the ship in disguise.
“We had an exclusive information which needed to be verified and hence we entered the ship in disguise. After verifying the information, we conducted the raid and detained eight people. We are finding more information about the source of drugs,” he said. “In coming days, more people could be detained and arrested.”
Waterways Leisure Tourism, the company that operates the Cordelia Cruises ship on which the drug raid took place, denied any relation to the case.
“Cordelia Cruises is in no way, directly or indirectly, connected to this incident,” it said in a statement. “Cordelia Cruises had chartered its ship for a private event to a Delhi based event management company.”