Fardeen out on bail in three days
When I was first told about Fardeen Khan’s case, I first took the facts of the whole case. What I realized after meeting and talking to Fardeen during a legal interview was that prosecutors said he was trying to buy one gram of cocaine and Nasir Shaikh, who was in overdose. Fardeen had punched a bank ATM of Rs 3500 to buy one gram. The money could not be withdrawn as the card got stuck in the machine.
That was the point we had to work with, and Fardeen’s father Feroz Khan Told me specifically, ‘We don’t want any false defenses’. That’s how we carried out that defense. Though there was an intermediate amount in the case, Fardeen’s role was that of attempted consumption, that too just one gram and it is a bailable offence.
A gram is a small quantity and in that case the punishment in those days was about 6 months or a fine of Rs 10,000 or a day to six months.
It was a petty offense and there was a new notification that amounts up to 2 grams were considered small quantities. Considering the circumstances of the case, we have taken the defense that it is a case of prosecution. Fardeen was taking one gram of cocaine, which is a small amount. We want bail in such cases, you can’t keep him in jail, although the prosecution argued that Fardeen was actually taking drugs for a long time, but my defense was, if he had been abusing drugs for a long time. Even then he remains one. consumer.
An argument ensued and Fardeen was in the custody of NCB for two or three days. We immediately applied for bail and soon got it from the NDPS court.
The prosecution alleged that they wanted to check whether there was a conspiracy because about 9 grams of banned substance was found from the smuggler Nasir. But the judge’s conclusion was that if Fardeen is eating, the statement reads, he should be prosecuted to a lesser extent. We got him out on bail within three days.
We did not give the prosecution a chance to pursue the matter. Even when he said that Nasir and Fardeen were talking, my stand was clear, if he is a consumer and is talking to the peddler, he is talking to him only for consumption and that will lead to our The matter helped.
After we took him out, a complaint was drafted, which was very vague, stating that it was a case of 9 grams. We went back to the court and said that the case against Fardeen is of a village. Therefore, the charge to be framed in his case has to be decided on a village-wise basis.
The matter went from the Sessions Court to the High Court and came back to the Sessions Court and we got the order in our favor because the evidence against Fardeen shows that it was a village case. There were other lawyers who asked Feroz Khan to deny all charges but I was convinced of Feroz Khan’s opinion that we would not make any false defenses. Also, we could not make a false defense as there was an ATM where Fardeen tried to withdraw money and footage from that ATM showed that Nasir was with him.
We defended as per the prosecution case that Fardeen was a consumer. Fardeen took a de-addiction course, which comes under 64A of the NDPS Act. The NDPS Act is a remedial act for the consumers and there are reliefs under section 64A and 39 for the consumers. Therefore, if you take the course of de-addiction, the case against you is withdrawn.
We made an application with NCB for guidance to a center where we could do de-addiction course, but we did not get any response from them. We waited for a long time, then we signed a deal with a government organization ourselves. We obtained the certificate and submitted it to the court and the case was withdrawn.
Our case ended in 2012 itself as it went from Sessions Court to High Court and hearing was not taking place. Many people were in custody and Fardeen too got busy with his work. And then Firoz Khan’s health was also not going well. But, strategically, there was no problem.
‘NCB got a chance to continue with the investigation as Aryan was in 6-day custody’
In Aryan’s case, the problem is that, although the NCB initially booked the case for consumption, they slapped Sections 27, 28 and 29. Section 28 is attempt to consume, section 29 is conspiracy to consume and section 27 is for consumption.
But according to the allegations, punishment can be given only for consumption. There is no punishment in Sections 28 and 29 like consumption penalty. NCB got the chance when they got Aryan’s custody. Once they got a chance, they went through his WhatsApp and then more things came to light. Also, I think there were witnesses in this case as well.
He got a chance to continue the investigation of the case as he remained in custody for six days. This gave NCB a lot of time and now they are saying in court that Aryan was talking to some peddlers when he was abroad. It also depends on what statement Aryan has given to him or which statement has been rejected by NCB from him. That statement is not acceptable in court but NCB gets the right to investigate. The only thing that can be known between Aryan and Fardeen’s cases is that we proceeded very fast for bail. Fardeen was produced in the court on the first day, I filed my bail application, which did not happen in Aryan’s case. We applied for bail and the matter came up for hearing the next day when NCB filed its reply, we argued and we were out.
‘I didn’t want Bharti Singh and Harsh Limbachiyaa to go to NCB’s custody’
In the case of Bharti Singh and her husband Harsh Limbachiyaa, the NCB found 80 grams of the banned substance in their office and home. It was more than Arbaaz Merchant, Aryan’s friend. What I did in his case also was that I did not let him go to the NCB custody. He was produced in the court on Sunday, I immediately applied for jail custody though NCB wanted to take custody. Not for Bharti but they were insisting on the custody of Harsh. He could have done a lot of investigation through Harsh, so I made sure I get him the custody of the jail on the first day, so that he gets out of the NCB custody. Bringing them to JC meant we could get bail the next day, now the matter is pending. I didn’t want any of them to be in the custody of NCB because you don’t know what angles can open in the investigation. Sometimes you can fabricate evidence, sometimes you can plant evidence, sometimes you can make rhetoric. True or false can be proved only after testing.
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