A special court granted the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) an extension of 60 days to file their chargesheet in the Cordelia cruise ship drugs raid case in which the agency had earlier arrested Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan.
The NCB, on Monday, had sought an extension of 90 days to file the chargesheet. The agency had arrested Aryan and 19 other people in the case in October.
It had claimed that the chemical exam reports of the 17 samples they'd sent came back on 12 March and they proved that the materials seized by the NCB during a raid on a cruise ship were narcotics or psychotropic drugs.
Special judge V V Patil also heard arguments by the defence lawyers of Abdul Kadar and Chinedu Igwe (the two accused still in custody) and the NCB special public prosecutor.
The NCB SPP Advait Sethna argued that the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act allowed for an extension of up to one year if the agency had "compelling reasons". Lawyers Ayaz Khan and Gorakh Liman, Igwe's counsel, said that they didn't have access to the report submitted to the court by the prosecutor.
Kadar's lawyers Kushal Mor and Apoorv Srivastava argued that NCB sought for an extension to keep the two accused in custody for longer.
NCB has argued that some of the accused in the case are influential people and allegedly have incriminating chats with foreign nationals. The accused were booked under sections of the NDPS Act for the alleged possession, consumption, and purchase of banned drugs, among others.
(With inputs from PTI)
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