Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan and his friend Arbaaz Seth Merchant were arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) after a rave party aboard a cruise ship off the coast of Mumbai was busted on Saturday night.
Arbaaz Seth Merchant is friends with many young Bollywood actors and star kids and he has been spotted partying with Aryan Khan, Suhana Khan, Ananya Panday, Shanaya Kapoor and Ahaan Pandey.
Arbaaz, who is reportedly 27 years old, has over 30,000 followers on Instagram and among them are Sachin Tendulkar’s daughter Sara and Indian cricket Shubman Gill.
Ananya Pandey, Alaya F, who Arbaaz reportedly dated a few years back and Suhana Khan are other celebrities who follow him on the social media platform.
For those unversed, an NCB team raided the Goa-bound Cordelia cruise ship on Saturday evening and recovered different drugs like MDMA, ecstasy, cocaine, MD (mephedrone) and charas during the raid, PTI reported, quoting a NCB official.
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“During the operation, the suspects were searched and different drugs were recovered from them, which they had hidden in their clothes, undergarments and purses (by women),” the official said, PTI reported.
Aryan and Arbaaz were both taken out of the NCB office for medical examination on Sunday morning, following which they were arrested. They appeared in court on Sunday evening and were sent to NCB custody till Monday.
Eminent lawyer Satish Maneshinde reportedly represented Aryan. Maneshinde has represented Rhea Chakraborty too in drugs case and also defended Sanjay Dutt in the Mumbai blast case.
“We are acting in an impartial manner. In the process, if some connections to Bollywood or rich people emerge, so be it. We have to act within the purview of the law… We have to keep on working in Mumbai. If you look at the data, there must have been more than 300 raids in the last one year. This will continue whether foreign nationals are involved, film industry or rich people are involved,” NCB Chief SN Pradhan reportedly told ANI on the seizure of drugs.