Shah Rukh Khan's son cleared in high-profile drug case
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Follow topic:
NEW DELHI • The Indian authorities have dropped a case against the son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who was arrested during a raid on a cruise ship last year on suspicion of having drugs on him.
India's main drug law enforcement agency, the Narcotics Control Board (NCB), said last Friday that it was dropping the case against Aryan Khan, 24, and five others due to a lack of "sufficient evidence", while pressing charges against 14 others.
Khan's arrest had polarised broadcast and social media in the Bollywood-obsessed country, with some saying he was targeted for being the son of a Muslim celebrity in mainly Hindu India.
A lawyer for Khan told Reuters his client's detention, which followed the raid on the boat off Mumbai last October, was unjustified and that he had broken no law.
Khan was released on bail on Oct 28 after 26 days in detention.
"We are happy that (an NCB team) investigated the case in an objective manner and decided not to file a complaint against Aryan Khan for lack of sufficient evidence," said his lawyer Satish Maneshinde.
Khan's case came more than a year after the suicide of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput and the arrest of his ex-girlfriend, actress Rhea Chakraborty, for allegedly buying him drugs.
Her arrest sparked a wider probe into drug use in Bollywood, with superstar Deepika Padukone and others hauled in for questioning.
Shah Rukh Khan, 56, whose career spans three decades, is arguably Hindi cinema's biggest and most recognisable star of the modern age.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
