How NCB busted Goa-bound cruise ship drugs party

Mumbai, October 3

A Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) team, led by its zonal director Sameer Wankhede, raided the Goa-bound ship on Saturday evening and recovered drugs from some of the passengers.

It arrested Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan and two others on Sunday, an official said

The raid was based on a tip-off that a party was scheduled on the ship, an official said.

“During the raid, over 20 officials of the Mumbai NCB boarded the ship posing as customers. There were 1,800 people on the ship but after checking all were asked to go except the eight, including Aryan Khan,” the official said.

Of the eight persons, the agency arrested Aryan Khan, Munmun Dhamecha and Arbaaz Merchant and produced them before a court in Mumbai on Sunday which remanded them in the NCB custody till October 4.

Meanwhile, the official said the anti-drugs agency was keeping a close watch on this event on the cruise ship for the last 15-20 days after receiving information that a drug party will be organised.

After confirmation, the NCB took the action, the official added.

The (Delhi-based) firm was tasked with the management of the event onboard Cordelia Cruises’ Empress ship, which was supposed to take place from October 2 to October 4. All known organisers of the event are now under the scanner of the NCB, he said.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) is likely to summon officials of the cruise company and the event management firm in connection with the seizure of banned drugs onboard the ship, the official said.

The NCB will now determine whether any of the organisers had any knowledge about the drugs being brought and consumed onboard during the three-day cruise in the Arabian Sea. Three additional directors of the event management company are now under the lens of the agency, the official added.

The official added the NCB may question officials of Delhi-based event management company Namas’cray registered as Caneplus Trading Private Limited and officials of the cruise company, Cordelia Cruises.

These three additional directors were tasked with selling tickets, preparing a guest list, inviting celebrities and helping with the musical events onboard the ship, he added.

The cruise company in a statement on Sunday said it had nothing to do with this incident.

“Cordelia Cruises is in no way, directly or indirectly, connected to this incident. Cordelia Cruises had chartered its ship for a private event to a Delhi-based event management company,” Jurgen Bailom, Chief Executive Officer and President, Waterways Leisure Tourism Pvt Ltd said in the statement earlier in the day.

It said Cordelia Cruises was extending our full support and cooperating with the authorities. PTI