Senior advocate Amit Desai representing Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, has declared in his closing arguments before court that no conspiracy to take drugs has been proven by the prosecution and that no Whatsapp chats exist to prove such a conspiracy. The arguments were made during the bail hearing for Aryan Khan and fellow accused Arbaaz Merchant and one other, Munmun Dhamecha."
"What has he done? The team of officers have seized all items. What was recovered? Only 6 gms from Arbaaz and 5 gms from Munmun. But they have said there is 21 gms. There is no connection, no WhatsApp messages and telephone calls between them. Learned judge rejected because there is a commercial quantity. This is where the problem is. The only thing they have argued to keep us in custody is so called WhatsApp chats. One thing is abundantly clear. There is no WhatsApp chat to support the conspiracy theory," said Desai as quoted by Bar and Bench.
The senior advocate also pointed out that the Supreme Court had declared that for a conspiracy to be proved then intention to commit a crime and collaborating with others with an agreement to commit that crime must be proven which has not been done in this case.
"Concurrence to commit an unlawful act is not conspiracy, there has to be an agreement. This aspect was considered in an NDPS matter in our own High Court," said Desai.
Two others arrested from Odisha in relation to the case were granted bail even after a small quantity of drugs was allegedly recovered from them. Their situation was almost identical and yet they were out on bail while Aryan Khan was not. These two were independent people and we're not involved in any conspiracy Desai argued.
"If the party was organised where everybody was smoking and drugs were freely available then section 29 will apply. Consumes is a verb. It's an action. Section 27 is about consumption. This has not happened. Law on conspiracy is also well settled," said Desai, alleging that Aryan Khan was slapped with "joint possession" for drugs recovered from Arbaaz Merchant, but none were recovered from him personally nor any medical tests conducted. At worst this was simply an "intent to consume" with no conspiracy involved he claimed.
The advocate has also called into question certain aspects of the arest and the sections charged in the arrest FIR which he claims was used to mislead the magistrates on the nature of the case.
"The arrest was illegal and I am making the position clear. The Supreme Court said arrest brings humiliation, curtails freedom and casts scars for ever. The power to arrest contributes to arrogance," Desai said. Bail hearing will resume shortly.