Bombay HC grants relief to Aryan Khan from weekly attendance at NCB Mumbai office

The court said that the applicant will have to inform the investigating officer and provide an itinerary before going out of Mumbai.

Aryan was released from Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail on October 30 after spending 26 days behind bars. A single-judge bench of Justice Nitin W Sambre of the High Court had on October 28 granted him bail two days before his release on 14 conditions, including appearing before the NCB every Friday.

Aryan, through an interim application, argued through senior advocate Amit Desai, has stated that since the probe in the case has been transferred to the Special Investigation Team (SIT), Delhi office of NCB, his visits to the Mumbai office could be relaxed as the latter is not interrogating him and, consequently, his attendance every Friday may not be required.

According to the court’s direction, Aryan had visited the NCB’s Mumbai office on November 5, 12, 19 and 26 and December 3 and 10.

In his application, Aryan has said that every Friday, when he visits the agency’s office in Mumbai, he is escorted by police officials due to the presence of a large number of media personnel outside the NCB office. As per the plea, he is relentlessly accosted by the press, gets extensively photographed and questioned, all of which is unwarranted. Aryan added that he has “firm roots in society” and will cooperate as and when summoned.

On October 28, three of the accused in the case, Aryan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, were directed to be released on bail upon executing personal bonds of Rs 1 lakh each with one or more sureties in the like amount.