'Did I really deserve it?' Aryan Khan breaks silence after NCB drug probe

As of May 28, Aryan Khan has been given a clean chit in the Mumbai cruise drugs bust case. And that begs the question: what went wrong with the probe in the first place? India Today Magazine tries to find answers in this month's cover story, Lessons From The Aryan Khan Case.

In November 2021, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed to independently probe the charges of possession and consumption of drugs against Aryan Khan, son of Shah Rukh Khan, and 19 others. This team was probing the case prepared by the Narcotics Control Bureau's (NCB) zonal directorate, headed by Sameer Wankhede at the time. This came a month after Aryan Khan and five others' sensational arrest by the NCB in the Cordelia cruise drug bust at the Mumbai port on October 2. It was claimed that a substantial quantity of illicit drugs was seized from them, and that Aryan had links with an international drugs syndicate. Had the charges been proved, Aryan, under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, could have been sentenced to six months to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment. But, as of May 28, 2022, Aryan Khan has been cleared of all charges due to lack of sufficient evidence in the case for which he spent more than 20 days in custody last year.

Finally, Aryan Khan breaks his silence.

In India Today Magazine's Cover Story, titled Lessons From The Aryan Khan Case, by Raj Chengappa, Sanjay Singh, NCB’s deputy director-general (operations), who headed the SIT, reveals his conversations with Aryan Khan. In the interview, Sanjay Singh confesses that he did not expect the kind of 'soul-searching queries Aryan Khan would make'. Sanjay says that after he made Aryan Khan comfortable by assuring him that hehad come with “an open mind”, Aryan Khan confronted him by asking, "Sir, you have painted me as an international drug trafficker, that I finance drug trafficking — aren’t these charges absurd? They did not find any drugs on my person that day and yet they arrested me. Sir, you have done me great wrong and ruined my reputation. Why did I have to spend so many weeks in jail — did I really deserve it?"

During his investigation, Sanjay Singh learned that Aryan's father, actor Shah Rukh Khan, also wanted to meet him. Since Sanjay Singh had met the parents of the other accused, he agreed to meet SRK too. When Shah Rukh and Sanjay Singh met, SRK raised concerns about his son's mental and emotional state. He said that Aryan was apparently not sleeping well and Shah Rukh himself had to go to Aryan's bedroom to keep him company through the night.

Shah Rukh also said that his son was 'being vilified' even though there was no substantial evidence against him. Almost in tears, Shah Rukh Khan told Sanjay Singh, "We have been painted as some kind of big criminals or monsters who are out to destroy society and we find going to work tough every day."

Aryan Khan was given a clean chit in the drugs case on May 28.