On Saturday, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) raided a rave party being held on a luxury passenger cruise off the Mumbai coast, and questioned eight persons, including Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan and his friend and actor Arbaaz Seth Merchant. After being questioned through the day on Sunday, later, on Sunday evening, Aryan was arrested by the NCB, along with Arbaaz and Munmun Dhamecha, a model.

The ship was departing for a three-day musical voyage on Saturday and was supposed to return on October 4 after sailing in the Arabian Sea. Officials from the NCB boarded the ship after receiving a tip-off and subsequently conducted the raid. A statement from the NCB, released on Sunday, read, “On the basis of specific information, the officials of NCB Mumbai conducted a raid on Cordelia cruise, which was bound from Mumbai to Goa on October 2. During the operation, all suspects as per the information were searched. Various drugs like MDMA/Ecstasy, Cocaine, MD (Mephedrone) and charas have been recovered.” NCB Mumbai has registered a case in the matter.

S N Pradhan, DG NCB, told ANI, “It’s a result of a painstaking investigation that went on for two weeks. We acted on specific intelligence inputs, and involvement of some Bollywood links has come to light. Eight people have been detained for questioning. On the basis of the information that we would receive from them, further raids will be conducted. We were gathering inputs and took the action when inputs suggested that drugs like charas and MDMA were carried for consumption at the party. 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.”

Sameer Wankhede, Zonal Director NCB, earlier on Sunday confirmed that apart from Aryan, Arbaaz and Munmun, five other people were being questioned. As per Wankhede, the other five names were — Nupur Sarika, Ismeet Singh, Mohak Jaswal, Vikrant Chhoker and Gomit Chopra. As per sources, Gomit, Mohak, and Munmun are from NCR. Munmun, originally from Sagar (MP), has been staying in NCR and is a model, and Gomit Chopra is a make-up artist. Before boarding the cruise, Mohak Jaswal and his group had posted pictures on social media.

A source told us, “Initially, three women from Delhi were brought to the NCB office but only two were detained after drugs were seized from them. Apart from them, two drug peddlers from Delhi were also detained.”

The statements of all the people being questioned were recorded on Sunday. They were also taken for medical tests. Their blood samples will be sent to test the presence of banned substances in them. As per reports, NCB conducted raids in Navi Mumbai based on the information provided by those being questioned.

Shakti Kapoor’s son, Siddhanth Kapoor, who also found his name being dragged into the controversy, clarified later that he was at home during the time of the incident and not involved in the matter in any way.

On Sunday afternoon, a statement was put out by the company that owns the cruise ship, Cordelia, which said that they had “chartered its ship for a private event to a Delhi-based event management company. We condemn all acts such as these and will strictly refrain from letting our ship out for similar events in the future... (We are) extending our full support and cooperating with the authorities.”

— TNN, with inputs from agencies