Cruise organisers arrested, NCB says they used availability of drugs to lure maximum number of guests

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Tuesday said it has arrested the founders and directors of an event management company that organised the party on the cruise liner. They were "harbouring drugs" and had invited celebrities to attract maximum customers, the agency said. Later, drugs were distributed among the consumers, it added.

With fresh arrests of the organisers from Namas'cray Experience, a Delhi-based firm, the agency has so far taken into custody a total of 16 people in connection with the drug bust on Cordelia Cruises off Mumbai coast.

NCB sources told mid-day that Section 27A (punishment for financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act has been slapped against the organisers - Namas'cray Experience's founder Samir Sehgal, co-founder Bhaskar Arora and directors Manav Singhal and Gopal Jee Anand.

Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, was invited as a guest to lure more guests. File pic/Shadab Khan

They were called to Mumbai for questioning and were later arrested. "The founders and directors of the event organising company [Namas'cray Experience] have been arrested. They will be produced before court [on Wednesday] and we will demand maximum custody to unearth the nexus," NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede told mid-day.

Sources said evidence against the firm shows that "drugs have been harboured in the party with the help of facilitators". "Then high-profile guests have been invited...to attract maximum guests at the party," said an NCB officer. The officer added that Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, was invited as a guest, and that he had accompanied Arbaz Merchant.

According to the NCB, even after Aryan and others were arrested on Sunday, people aboard the cruise were partying and drugs were also consumed. Officers conducted another raid the next morning and arrested two others for consumption - Manish Rajgaria and Avin Sahu from Odisha. Killa court has sent the duo to the NCB's custody till October 11.

How drugs came on cruise?

NCB officers said women at the party brought drugs in sanitary pads, which are not checked before entry. Some used eye lens cases for cocaine, while others packed MDMA pills in bottles of Ayurvedic items, they added.

Four
No. of people from event management firm NCB has arrested