Cordelia Cruise drug bust case: Aryan Khan’s phone unlocked using face ID as he refused to give his password

Aryan Khan, who was given a clean chit by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Friday in the Cordelia cruise drugs bust case, told the agency that his phone was unlocked at the terminal using face ID as he had refused to give his password.

Aryan’s statements were recorded first by the NCB and later by the SIT, which took over the probe from the Mumbai unit of the NCB following allegations against then zonal director Sameer Wankhede. These were added as a part of the chargesheet submitted by the SIT before the special court under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

After the NCB unlocked the phone and questioned him about the chats related to drugs, Aryan said that those were from earlier when he was in Los Angeles. He accepted that he had consumed marijuana in LA for recreational purpose, as it is legal abroad.

He admitted to knowing a dealer in Bandra but didn’t know his name or exact location as primarily he was known to his friend Aachit Kumar. Aryan, in his statement, accepted his WhatsApp chats with Aachit for drug procurement, where they talked about buying “dokha” (weed).

In one of his statements recorded by the NCB, Aryan said that he voluntarily gave his phone to the NCB to check. The SIT has criticised this move as a ‘seizure panchanama’ should have been done by the NCB before taking charge of his phone. He said that he used Apple mobile, Ipad and Macbook pro laptop for his usual work, which were initially seized by the NCB. Aryan also shared his phone numbers that he has been using for the past five years and also shared the passwords for his phone and Ipad (however, they were found incorrect).

As per the charge-sheet, Aryan also admitted to his chats with actor Chunky Pandey’s daughter, Ananya Pandey, regarding weed procurement.

However, Ananya in her statement to the NCB said the chats related to weed were in jest. She said that all the chats with Aryan were an extension of the same joke as mentioned earlier. Alleging that Aryan was lying, Ananya said “she is completely unaware why Aryan said something like this."