New Delhi [India], July 20 (ANI): In a massive drive against narcotics and drugs, Railway Protection Force (RPF) recovered narcotics worth Rs 40.58 crores and arrested 1,108 persons in three years, said Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday.

Mumbai Nov 27 PTI A special court here has said while granting bail to an accused in the drugs-on-cruise case that there was no apparent evidence that he was a peddler and had supplied drugs to co-accused Arbaaz Merchant In the detailed order which became available on Saturday the court said it cannot accept the Narcotics Control Bureaus NCB contention that accused Shivraj Harijan was a drug peddler and had supplied drugs to Merchant The NCB had on October 3 arrested actor Shah Rukh Khans son Aryan Merchant and some others after raiding a cruise ship here and allegedly recovering drugsMerchant and Aryan Khan were granted bail by the High Court on October 28 V V Patil special judge for cases related to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances NDPS Act on November 22 granted Harijan bail Barring the statement of the accused under section 67 of the NDPS Act there is no prima facie evidence on record to show that the applicant was a supplier of the contraband the order stated Therefore the contention of the prosecution cannot be accepted that the applicant is a peddler and he supplied contraband to accused no 2 Merchant it added Considering the material on record it cannot be said that prima facie conspiracy charge was made out against the accused the order said PTI SP ARU KRK KRK

Mumbai Nov 20 PTI The Bombay High Court in its detailed order granting bail to actor Shah Rukh Khans son Aryan Khan and two others in the drugs-on-cruise case has said that prima facie it has not found any positive evidence against the accused to show that they had conspired to commit an offence A single bench of Justice N W Sambre had on October 28 granted bail to Aryan Khan his friend Arbaaz Merchant and a fashion model Munmun Dhamecha in the case on a personal bond of Rs one lakh each A detailed copy of the order was made available on Saturday The court said that perusal of the WhatsApp chats extracted from the phone of Aryan Khan shows that nothing objectionable was noticed to suggest that he Merchant and Dhamecha along with other accused in the case have hatched a conspiracy of committing the offence in question It also held that the confessional statement of Aryan Khan recorded by the NCB under section 67 of the NDPS Act can be considered only for investigation purposes and cannot be used as a tool for drawing an inference that the accused have committed an offence under the NDPS Act There is hardly any positive evidence on record to convince this court that all the accused persons with common intention agreed to commit unlawful acts the court said while rejecting the Narcotics Control Bureaus NCB argument that the case of all the accused ought to be considered together Rather the probe carried out till date suggests that Aryan Khan and Arbaaz Merchant were travelling independently of Munmun Dhamecha and there was no meeting of minds on the alleged offence the 14-page order said So as to infer the case of conspiracy against the applicants also there is absence of material on record of them having such meeting of minds with the other accused who were named in the offence in question the order said The court further noted that the trio had already suffered incarceration for almost 25 days and the prosecution had not even conducted a medical examination on them so as to determine if they had consumed drugs Aryan Khan Merchant and Dhamecha were arrested by the NCB on October 3 and were booked under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances NDPS Act for conspiracy possession sale purchase and illicit trafficking of banned substances The court in its order noted that Aryan Khan was not found in possession of any objectionable substance and this fact has not been disputed Merchant and Dhamecha were found to be in illegal possession of drugs the quantity of which is considered a small quantity The court in such cases is first required to ascertain whether there is enough material on record to prima facie infer that the applicants Aryan Khan Merchant and Dhamecha have hatched a conspiracy and that the prosecution was justified in invoking provisions of section 29 criminal conspiracy of the NDPS Act the order said It added that to infer so there has to be positive evidence about an agreement to do an unlawful act and such agreement must precede with meeting of minds Justice Sambre further said that the court needs to be sensitive to the fact that there has to be presence of basic material in the form of evidence so as to substantiate the case of conspiracy against the accused persons Merely because the applicants were travelling on the cruise that by itself cannot be termed as satisfying foundation for invoking provisions of section 29 conspiracy of the NDPS Act the court said Justice Sambre further said that even if the case of the prosecution is considered the maximum punishment is not more than one year for such an offence Aryan Khan had walked out of the Arthur Road prison on October 30 As per the bail conditions imposed by the high court he is required to appear before the NCB office in south Mumbai every Friday to mark his presence and shall not indulge in similar offences or tamper with evidence in the case Aryan Khan Merchant and Dhamecha have also been directed to not leave the country without permission from the trial court and to inform the NCB if they intend to leave Mumbai PTI SP NP NP