Drugs case: NCB summons Ananya Panday; bureau officials visit Shah Rukh's house

Officials of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) visited the residence of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan on Thursday in connection with their investigation into a cruise drugs party case, sources said. The actor’s son, Aryan Khan, was arrested with a few others on 3 October after the NCB raided a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast and claimed to have seized drugs, including charas. The NCB team, led by senior officials of the agency, visited Shah Rukh Khan’s residence ‘Mannat’ in suburban Bandra in the afternoon for some paperwork, sources said.

Mumbai | A team of Narcotics Control Bureau arrives at actor Shah Rukh Khan's residence 'Mannat' pic.twitter.com/W3h24x8fzs

— ANI (@ANI) October 21, 2021

Another team of the NCB also visited actor Ananya Panday’s residence in Bandra, they said. Panday has been asked to appear before the NCB on Thursday to record her statement, the sources said. According to an NDTV report, Anaya’s name reportedly featured in the WhatsApp chats of one of the accused in the drugs-on-cruise case, in which Aryan Khan has also been arrested. “It is part of the investigation. We call suspects as well as witnesses for investigation. If we call someone doesn’t mean he or she is a culprit,” an official from the NCB was quoted as saying by News18. Earlier in the day, Shah Rukh Khan met his son Aryan Khan at the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai where the latter has been lodged following arrest in a case of seizure of drugs on board the cruise ship off the city coast. A special court on Wednesday denied bail to Aryan Khan , observing that ‘on the face of it’, he was indulging in “illicit drug activities on a regular basis”. His WhatsApp chats also showed, prima facie, that he was in touch with drug peddlers, the court noted. Aryan Khan subsequently moved the Bombay High Court to challenge the lower court’s order. The high court on Thursday said it would hear his bail plea on 26 October. With inputs from PTI