Mumbai, November 20, 2018 : .The Bombay High Court ruled against Aryan Khan’s coaccused Munmun Dahamecha as well as Arbaaz merchant for the charges of conspiracy and common intent in the case against them following the raids on cruise ships. Justice Nitin Sambre delivered the 14-page detailed order.He stated that, despite the evidence presented by the NCB to the court, Justice Nitin Sambre did not find prima facie that there was any positive evidence in support of the trio.
You may recall that Khan, Dhamecha, and Merchant received conditional bail from the high court via a speaking order on October 28, and details of the order were made only today.
Justice Sambre stated that NCB’s claim under the NDPS Act on common intent to commit an offense was “liable to being rejected”.
According to the court, the mere fact that the trio were on the cruise was not grounds for invoking Section 29 (criminal conspiracy against them).
Justice Sambre stated that “this court must be sensitive to fact that basic material has to exist in evidence so as to support the case against the applicants (accused)”.
Further, he stated that Khan was not found with drugs and the quantities recovered from Dhamecha or Merchant were’small.’ According to the NDPS Act
In such cases, to inflict the offense of conspiracy on the accused, you need to have positive evidence of an agreement to do an illegal act or do lawful acts by unlawful means.Such agreement must precede any meeting of mind, however, the court said that there was no such material.
Aryan Khan’s WhatsApp conversations with all three of the accused were not objectionable.
They did not suggest a conspiracy or a meeting between minds in order to create a conspiracy and then commit offenses under the NDPS Act.
Justice Sambre stated that evidence from the investigation to date suggests that the trio of accused were traveling independently, and that there wasn’t a’meeting or discussion’ regarding the matter as claimed by the NCB.
The court ruled that there had been no conspiracy and therefore the rigours of NDPS Act Section 37 regarding bail granted would not be applicable here.It also granted bail to Khan, Dhamecha, and Merchant last month.
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