On Friday, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) gave a clean chit to Aryan Khan in last year’s drugs-on-cruise case, stating that there was no recovery of drugs from Aryan, nor was there any concrete evidence to prove that he conspired with the other accused. We spoke to senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, who represented Aryan in the matter. He said, “Come to think of it, there was no case against him to begin with. The matter was under investigation for months. It’s clear now that there was no material found against Aryan Khan to prosecute him. Drugs were not found on his person, and neither had he consumed it prior to arrest. It has now been clearly concluded that there is no case against him.”

While Aryan’s father Shah Rukh Khan and mother Gauri have maintained a dignified silence through the proceedings, Rohatgi added that the “family had suffered a great deal”. He said, “It’s also painful and unfortunate to see what the family went through at that time.”

At the same time, he said that Aryan was lucky that the matter was “wrapped up in six to eight months”. “There are thousands of cases across the courts in our country. Undertrials spend days, weeks, months and sometimes, even years behind bars. In that context, he was very lucky – he spent just about 25 days. Having said that, it’s still unfortunate. But in the context of the larger picture, Aryan’s incarceration was the shortest. And the fact that there is no case against him has come about quickly.”

Rohatgi added, “This is really a time for prosecution agencies to think if they should go on arresting people without material evidence and then sheepishly say that they don’t have a case and that they made a mistake. I think it’s time that authorities began to take on more responsibility for their actions. The law gives them the power but they need to exercise it with caution. The good part is, this chapter is over for Aryan.”