Aryan Khan accused NCB of ‘ruining reputation’ after arrest, Shah Rukh Khan said they’d been painted as ‘criminals, monsters’

As per India Today, Sanjay Singh, NCB’s deputy director-general (operations), who headed the SIT behind the probe, recalled his conversations with Aryan. He had told Aryan that he would speak to him ‘with an open mind’.

According to him, Aryan asked him a few “soul-searching queries”. He said “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?”

Opposition parties and fans of Shah Rukh had alleged political motives behind Aryan’s arrest. The government has recommended action against former NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede for his “shoddy investigation” of the case. In the India Today report, Singh also claimed that he spoke to Shah Rukh Khan. “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,” Singh quoted Shah Rukh as saying.

After several months spent under the radar, the actor has now started resuming work properly. He will be seen in three films–Pathaan, Jawan, Dunki–next year, each of which was revealed in back-to-back announcements over the last few weeks. Aryan is reportedly writing projects for streaming platforms, and his sister Suhana Khan will make her acting debut in the upcoming Netflix film The Archies.