Cruise drugs case: Witness shares video showing hotelier Kunal Jani at NCB office
Mumbai, Oct 25: A video shared on Sunday by an 'independent witness' in the cruise drugs case purportedly shows absconding witness K P Gosavi recording an audio of Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, at the NCB office here, in which hotelier Kunal Jani, who was earlier arrested in a separate drugs case, was also briefly seen.
Prabhakar Sail, the 'independent witness', shared the video to media persons.
The video that showed Jani, who is the director of a prominent restaurant in Bandra here, at the NCB's office, triggered speculations that he had some connection in the raid conducted by the anti-drugs agency on the cruise ship earlier this month that led to the alleged seizure of drugs and arrest of Aryan Khan and others.
However, sources in the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said that Jani was arrested by the agency in a separate drugs case and he was present at its office when Aryan Khan was brought there as his (Jani's) statement was also being recorded.
Jani was arrested by the NCB on September 30 in connection with a drug case wherein Agisilaos Demetriades, brother of actor Arjun Rampal's partner, is also an accused. Demetriades was accused of running a drug syndicate.
Jani got out on bail on October 10.
NCB sources said that Jani's name first appeared in the case linked to actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials found a chat group of Jani and Rhea Chakraborty where drugs were being discussed.
Actor Shilpa Shetty's husband Raj Kundra is a partner in Jani's hotel. Kundra is an accused in a pornographic films case, who got out on bail last month.
Sail on Sunday also claimed that Rs 25 crore was demanded by an official of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and other persons, including Gosavi, to let off Aryan Khan, arrested in the case.
Sail told media persons that he had overheard Gosavi telling one Sam D'Souza over the phone after Aryan Khan was brought to the NCB office after the October 3 raid about a demand of Rs 25 crore and "to settle at Rs 18 crore as they have to give Rs eight crore to Sameer Wankhede", the zonal director of the NCB.
However, the NCB has denied the allegations.
Witnes in #AryanKhan case made to sign on blank paper by NCB is shocking. Also thr r reports that thr ws demnd of huge money .CM UddhavThackeray said tht ths cases r made 2 defame Mah'shtra.Ths seems 2b comng tru @Dwalsepatil
— Sanjay Raut (@rautsanjay61) October 24, 2021
Police shd tk suo moto cognizance@CMOMaharashtra pic.twitter.com/zipBcZiRSm
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'Physical relations' cannot automatically mean sexual assault: Delhi HC
New Delhi, Dec 29: The Delhi High Court has acquitted a man in a POCSO case, saying the use of phrase 'physical relations' by the minor survivor cannot automatically mean sexual assault.
A bench of Justices Prathiba M Singh and Amit Sharma allowed the appeal by the accused, who was awarded imprisonment for the remainder of his life, and observed that it was unclear how the trial court concluded that there was any sexual assault when the survivor had voluntarily gone with the accused.
The court asserted that the leap from physical relations or 'samband' to sexual assault and then to penetrative sexual assault must be established by evidence and cannot be deduced as an inference.
"The mere fact that the survivor is below 18 years cannot lead to a conclusion that there was penetrative sexual assault. The survivor, in fact, used the phrase 'physical relations', but there is no clarity as to what she meant by using the said phrase," the court said in the judgement passed on December 23.
"Even the use of the words 'samband banaya' is not sufficient to establish an offence under Section 3 of the POCSO Act or under Section 376 IPC. Though consent would not matter if the girl is a minor under the POCSO Act, the phrase 'physical relations' cannot be converted automatically into sexual intercourse let alone sexual assault," it held.
The court said the benefit of doubt ought to be in favour of the accused and, therefore, ruled, "The impugned judgement completely lacks any reasoning and also does not reveal or support any rationale for the conviction. Under such circumstances, the judgement is liable to be set aside. The appellant is acquitted."
The complaint in this case was lodged in March 2017 by the minor girl's mother, alleging that her 14-year-old daughter had been lured and kidnapped from her home by an unknown person.
The minor was found in Faridabad along with the accused, who was arrested and subsequently convicted for offence of rape under IPC and penetrative sexual assault under POCSO in December 2023 and later awarded imprisonment for the remainder of his life.
