MUMBAI: Hours after the HC gave the operative part of its bail order at 3.30pm on Friday setting the bail surety amount at Rs 1 lakh, hopes for the sameday release of Aryan Khan from Arthur Road jail dwindled among his legal team as the bail formalities, which included furnishing of a surety and other procedures, took time.
On his 26thday in a cell and his hopes pinned on paperwork, Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, had to contend with one more night in a jail barrack, though not of uncertainty, report Swati Deshpande & Rebecca Samervel.
Justice Nitin Sambre had on Thursday granted bail to Khan (23), his friend Arbaaz Merchant (26) and Munmun Dhamecha (28).
Aryan’s advocate said he would be released shortly after 7am on Saturday
Weekly 3-hour attendance at NCB office a condition for bail
Aryan Khan had to spend one more night in a jail barrack on Friday.
The bail amount and conditions for him, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha were common. He will be released Saturday morning, said his lawyer. Within an hour of the HC order being uploaded, at around 4.30pm, Juhi Chawla, a co-star of his father in some films, arrived at sessions court to stand as surety for Aryan. Dressed in a white salwar with bluish grey duppata, her eyes twinkling despite a black mask as she obliged court staff with selfies, she signed the Rs 1 lakh bond for the bail.
After her arrival, Khan’s legal team had apparently an hour’s window before it could submit the release order—to be placed in a sealed cover—at the drop box outside Arthur Road jail. Aryan, whose bail formalities from the sessions court end then got completed, missed the jail ‘deadline’ of 5.30pm. His lawyer Satish Maneshinde said, “In view of the system and procedural lacuna, he will have to spend one more night in jail.”
“There is a procedural lacuna in our system that even though we got the HC bail order 3.30pm and though we are in the electronic age, we have to follow the archaic system of taking the physical copy from HC to the special NDPS court, where the designated judge, after examining the authenticated copy, accepts the surety and his or her solvency certificate if any, issued by a tehsildar,” said Maneshinde.
Khan’s team had come prepared with Chawla’s solvency certificate to show she was solvent for Rs 1 lakh. The judge accepted her as surety.
Following his order granting bail, Justice Nitin Sambre on Friday set out 14 stringent bail conditions including immediate surrender of passport, a weekly three-hour attendance at the NCB office, no statements to media, the requirement to join in the investigation when called upon to do so and not to delay the trial once it starts. Following Covid protocols, after verifying Chawla’s identity and other documents, cops posted outside gate number six of sessions court permitted her to enter the premises.
Accompanied by lawyers from Aryan’s legal team, she made her way to the special NDPS court No 44 on the first floor. Introducing Chawla to court, Maneshinde said she has been professionally associated with Shah Rukh Khan and knows Aryan since he was born. Chawla stood in the witness box. Special judge V V Patil, who had last week rejected Aryan’s bail plea, asked her for her name and who she was appearing for. “Juhi Chawla Mehta,” the actor said.
The court verified her documents that included her Aadhar card and passport. Chawla then made her way to the third floor where further formalities were completed in the registrar’s office. She was made to sign certain documents. A huge crowd of litigants, lawyers and court staff gathered outside the office to catch a glimpse. Lawyers of other litigants waiting for their formalities to be completed expressed their displeasure. Chawla then went back to the courtroom. The court registry prepared the bail bond after seeing the special court’s acceptance of her surety.
The papers are sent to the special judge to append his signature on the bond, after which the document is sealed with the court’s seal and thereafter, the packet containing the order in a sealed cover is sent to the jailor, said Maneshinde. The norm followed in Maharashtra is that a jailor accepts the court paper for release on bail, only via a drop box placed outside the prison, which is opened at regular intervals four times a day: at 7am, midday, 3.30pm and last at 5.30pm, Maneshinde said. But the jail manual requires all inmates to be sent inside barracks at 6pm and barracks are sealed and locked, he said. Headcount of inmates starts at 5pm inside the barracks.
Chawla left the court a little after 6pm.
The order of bail, meanwhile, said the trio cannot tamper with the probe, cannot indulge in any similar activities on the basis of which the case was registered under the NDPS Act and cannot try to establish communication with co-accused or any other person involved in similar activities as alleged. If they violate any of the 14 terms, NCB shall be entitled to apply to special court for cancellation of bail.
