The Evening Wrap: Aryan cleared in drugs case; appropriate action recommended against Wankhede

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) filed its charge sheet before a special court in Mumbai on Friday and has not named actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan, 23, in the drug racket case. As per a press note released by the agency, “All accused were found in possession of narcotics except Aryan (Khan) and Mohak. The touchstone of the principle of proof beyond reasonable doubt has been applied. Based on which a complaint has been filed against 14 accused and a complaint against six (including Aryan Khan) is not filed due to lack of sufficient evidence.” The 6,000 page charge sheet named Arbaaz Merchant, Munmun Dhamecha and 12 others. Khan and five others have not been named. On March 28, the agency filed an application before the special Narcotics Drugs Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act court, seeking more time to file a charge sheet in the drug case busted on October 2 when 13 grams of cocaine, five grams of MD (mephedrone), 21 grams of charas, 22 pills of MDMA and ₹1,33,000 cash were seized at the International Cruise Terminal, Mumbai. The case was transferred to a special investigation team (SIT) on November 6, 2021, and on March 2, its chief Sanjay Singh said that it was highly premature to say that there was no evidence against Khan in the case. At a press conference, NCB Director General S.N. Pradhan said the SIT went by the principle of “beyond reasonble doubt”, based on which there was not sufficient evidence against six of the 20 accused persons. Therefore, the charge sheet was filed against 14 others within the stipulated time period. A supplementary one would be submitted in case the probe team came across any further evidence. The SIT took over the case as it was becoming controversial and the organisation’s reputation was at stake. There were serious loopholes in the initial probe, which was carried out under the supervision of then Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede. The SIT conducted an objective investigation into all the aspects of the case, he stated. On October 29, the Bombay High Court granted bail to Khan and two others after he was arrested on October 2. It directed that they be released from the Arthur Road Jail after executing a cash bond of ₹1 lakh with one or more sureties. Also, appropriate action against the former Mumbai zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Sameer Wankhede, has been recommended to the competent authority for a “shoddy” initial probe into the cruise case in which the agency has not found any prosecutable evidence against Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, according to government sources. Under Wankhede’s supervision, an NCB team arrested Aryan Khan along with others on October 3 last. Accused of offences under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, he spent 22 days in judicial custody before being released from jail on bail. It is learnt that the government has now recommended to the Finance Ministry that appropriate action be initiated against the officer, who was sent back to his parent organisation after his extended tenure with the NCB ended in December last. An independent witness in the case, Prabhakar Sail, had alleged extortion in the case. The then Maharashtra government Minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader, Nawab Malik, had also accused Wankhede of using a forged a caste certificate claiming himself to be from the Scheduled Caste category to get the job. The official had denied the charges. However, taking cognisance of various allegations and prima facie evidence of some irregularities during the probe, NCB Director General S.N. Pradhan ordered a vigilance inquiry. Action was also taken against some officials. The case was transferred to the agency headquarters’ Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by Deputy Director General (Ops) Sanjay Kumar Singh. According to NCB officials, the SIT detected serious procedural lapses on the part of the first team. No drugs was found on Aryan Khan. Consumption charge was invoked, but his medical examination had not been done in this regard. In his statement, his friend told the team that drugs he carried was not for Aryan Khan. There was no material available warranting the action of opening Aryan Khan’s mobile or WhatsApp chat. The mobile phone had not been seized formally. The SIT went through the impugned chat messages but did not find any evidence establishing his alleged role. An official pointed out that, as per court directive, WhatsApp chats could not by themselves be treated as primary evidence. The NCB chief has recently directed the officials not to take up small cases and focus on unearthing the cases which have national security implications and those with international links. “Stringent action will be taken against those who do not adhere to the orders,” said a senior official. Seven soldiers killed as vehicle with 26 soldiers falls in Ladakh’s Shyok river Seven soldiers were killed after a vehicle with 26 soldiers moving from the Transit Camp in Partapur in Ladakh to a forward location in Sub Sector Hanif skidded off the road and fell in Shyok river resulting in injuries to all occupants. “At approx 0900h, around 25km from Thoise, the vehicle skidded off the road and fell in Shyok river, to a depth of approx 50-60 feet, resulting in injuries to all occupants,” an Army source said on Friday. All 26 individuals have been evacuated to 403 Field Hospital at Partapur and surgical teams from Leh have moved to Partapur, the source said. Initially, all 26 individuals were evacuated to 403 Field Hospital at Partapur and surgical teams from Leh were moved to Partapur. “Seven individuals have been declared dead so far. There are grievous injuries to others as well,” the source said. All 19 were shifted to Western Command at Chandimandir later. Delhi court awards 4-year jail term to O. P. Chautala in assets case A Delhi court on Friday awarded a four-year jail term to former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala in a disproportionate assets (DA) case. Special Judge Vikas Dhull imposed a fine of ₹50 lakh on the convict in the case of acquiring disproportionate assets from 1993 to 2006. The judge also directed the authorities concerned to confiscate four of his properties. The court had last week convicted Chautala and said the accused had failed to satisfactorily account for such dis-proportionality by proving his source of income or means by way of which he acquired assets during this period. The CBI had filed the case in 2005, and a charge sheet was filed on March 26, 2010, accusing him of amassing assets disproportionate to his legitimate income, between 1993 and 2006. According to the CBI’s FIR, Om Prakash Chautala, while functioning as Chief Minister of Haryana from July 24, 1999, to March 5, 2005, in collusion with his family members and others, accumulated assets, immovable and movable, disproportionate to his known lawful sources of income, in his name and in the names of his family members. The disproportionate assets were calculated to be ₹6.09 crore, 189.11% of his known sources of income. Al Jazeera says it will go to ICC over killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh The Al Jazeera news network said it will submit a case file to the International Criminal Court on the killing of reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot dead earlier this month during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank. The Qatar-based network and the Palestinian Authority have accused Israeli soldiers of deliberately killing her. Israel rejects those allegations as a “blatant lie.” It says she was shot during a firefight between soldiers and Palestinian militants, and that only ballistic analysis of the bullet — which is held by the PA — can determine who fired the fatal shot. An AP reconstruction lent support to witnesses who say the veteran Palestinian-American correspondent was killed by Israeli fire, but any final conclusion may depend on evidence that has not yet been released. Al Jazeera said late Thursday it has formed an international legal team to prepare a case dossier to be submitted to the ICC. The court launched an investigation into possible Israeli war crimes last year. Israel is not a member of the ICC and has rejected the probe as being biased against it. Al Jazeera said the case file would also include the Israeli bombing of the building housing its offices in Gaza City during last year’s war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, “as well as the continuous incitements and attacks on its journalists operating in the occupied Palestinian territories.” Israel said the building — which also housed the Gaza office of The Associated Press — contained Hamas military infrastructure, but has not provided any evidence. The AP was not aware of any purported Hamas presence in the building and condemned the strike as “shocking and horrifying.” No one was hurt in the strike, which came after an Israeli warning to evacuate. “The Network vows to follow every path to achieve justice for Shireen, and ensure those responsible for her killing are brought to justice and held accountable in all international justice and legal platforms and courts,” Al Jazeera said. Israel says it cannot determine whether Palestinian militants or its own soldiers fired the fatal shot unless the PA hands over the bullet that killed Abu Akleh for ballistic analysis. The PA has refused to cooperate with Israel in any way, saying it doesn’t trust Israel to investigate itself. The PA announced the results of its own probe on Thursday, saying Abu Akleh was deliberately killed by Israeli forces and that there were no militants in the area. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz rejected the findings, saying “any claim that the IDF intentionally harms journalists or uninvolved civilians is a blatant lie,” referring to the Israeli military. Palestinian Attorney General Akram Al Khateeb, in announcing the results of the probe, said the bullet that killed her was an armor-piercing 5.56 mm NATO round and that it appeared to have been fired by a Ruger Mini-14 semiautomatic rifle. The Israeli military declined to comment on whether the gun described by the Palestinians matches one the military has previously identified as having possibly fired the fatal shot. It also declined to say whether the army uses the Ruger Mini-14 or whether any were in use during the May 11 raid in which Abu Akleh was killed, in the West Bank town of Jenin. Israel has publicly called for a joint investigation with the PA, with the participation of the U.S. The State Department said this week that neither Israel nor the PA have formally requested its assistance. Nearly 200 cases of monkeypox in more than 20 countries: WHO The World Health Organisation said nearly 200 cases of monkeypox have been reported in more than 20 countries not usually known to have outbreaks of the unusual disease, but described the epidemic as “containable” and proposed creating a stockpile to equitably share the limited vaccines and drugs available worldwide. During a public briefing on Friday, the UN health agency said there are still many unanswered questions about how the current epidemic arose, but there is no evidence that any genetic changes in the virus are responsible for the unprecedented epidemic. “The first sequencing of the virus shows that the strain is not different from the strains we can find in endemic countries and (this outbreak) is probably due more to a change in human behaviour,” said Dr. Sylvie Briand, WHO’s director of pandemic and epidemic diseases. Earlier this week, a top adviser to WHO said the outbreak in Europe, U.S., Israel, Australia and beyond was likely linked to sex at two recent raves in Spain and Belgium. That marks a significant departure from the disease’s typical pattern of spread in central and western Africa, where people are mainly infected by animals like wild rodents and primates, and outbreaks haven’t spilled across borders. On Friday, Spanish authorities said the number of cases there had risen to 98, including one woman, whose infection is “directly related” to a chain of transmission that had been previously limited to men, according to officials in the region of Madrid. Doctors in Britain, Spain, Portugal, Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere have noted that the majority of infections to date have been in gay and bisexual men, or men who have sex with men. The disease is no more likely to affect people because of their sexual orientation and scientists warn the virus could infect others if transmission isn’t curbed. WHO’s Briand said that based on how past outbreaks of the disease in Africa have evolved, the current situation appeared “containable”. Still, she said WHO expected to see more cases reported in the future, noting “we don’t know if we are just seeing the peak of the iceberg (or) if there are many more cases that are undetected in communities,” she said. As countries including Britain, Germany, Canada and the U.S. begin evaluating how smallpox vaccines might be used to curb the outbreak, WHO said its expert group was assessing the evidence and would provide guidance soon. Dr. Rosamund Lewis, head of WHO’s smallpox department, said that “there is no need for mass vaccination,” explaining that monkeypox does not spread easily and typically requires skin-to-skin contact for transmission. No vaccines have been specifically developed against monkeypox, but WHO estimates that smallpox vaccines are about 85% effective. She said countries with vaccine supplies could consider them for those at high risk of the disease, like close contacts of patients or health workers, but that monkeypox could mostly be controlled by isolating contacts and continued epidemiological investigations. In Brief The southwest monsoon is expected to reach Kerala during the next two to three days, marking a sluggish start to the seasonal rains that are the lifeline of India’s agri-based economy.Earlier, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had forecast the onset over Kerala on Friday (May 27) with help from the remnants of Cyclone Asani, that struck the Bay of Bengal a fortnight ago. The forecast had a model error of four days. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow [logo] The Evening Wrap 27 MAY 2022 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Aryan Khan cleared in drugs case; appropriate action recommended against former NCB zonal director  The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) filed its charge sheet before a special court in Mumbai on Friday and has [not named actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan]( 23, in the drug racket case. As per a press note released by the agency, “All accused were found in possession of narcotics except Aryan (Khan) and Mohak. The touchstone of the principle of proof beyond reasonable doubt has been applied. Based on which a complaint has been filed against 14 accused and a complaint against six (including Aryan Khan) is not filed due to lack of sufficient evidence.” The 6,000 page charge sheet named Arbaaz Merchant, Munmun Dhamecha and 12 others. Khan and five others have not been named. On March 28, the agency filed an application before the special Narcotics Drugs Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act court, seeking more time to file a charge sheet in the drug case busted on October 2 when 13 grams of cocaine, five grams of MD (mephedrone), 21 grams of charas, 22 pills of MDMA and ₹1,33,000 cash were seized at the International Cruise Terminal, Mumbai. The case was transferred to a special investigation team (SIT) on November 6, 2021, and on March 2, its chief Sanjay Singh said that it was highly premature to say that there was no evidence against Khan in the case. At a press conference, NCB Director General S.N. Pradhan said the SIT went by the principle of “beyond reasonble doubt”, based on which there was not sufficient evidence against six of the 20 accused persons. Therefore, the charge sheet was filed against 14 others within the stipulated time period. A supplementary one would be submitted in case the probe team came across any further evidence. The SIT took over the case as it was becoming controversial and the organisation’s reputation was at stake. There were serious loopholes in the initial probe, which was carried out under the supervision of then Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede. The SIT conducted an objective investigation into all the aspects of the case, he stated. On October 29, the Bombay High Court granted bail to Khan and two others after he was arrested on October 2. It directed that they be released from the Arthur Road Jail after executing a cash bond of ₹1 lakh with one or more sureties. Also, [appropriate action against the former Mumbai zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Sameer Wankhede]( has been recommended to the competent authority for a “shoddy” initial probe into the cruise case in which the agency has not found any prosecutable evidence against Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, according to government sources. Under Wankhede’s supervision, an NCB team arrested Aryan Khan along with others on October 3 last. Accused of offences under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, he spent 22 days in judicial custody before being released from jail on bail. It is learnt that the government has now recommended to the Finance Ministry that appropriate action be initiated against the officer, who was sent back to his parent organisation after his extended tenure with the NCB ended in December last. An independent witness in the case, Prabhakar Sail, had alleged extortion in the case. The then Maharashtra government Minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader, Nawab Malik, had also accused Wankhede of using a forged a caste certificate claiming himself to be from the Scheduled Caste category to get the job. The official had denied the charges. However, taking cognisance of various allegations and prima facie evidence of some irregularities during the probe, NCB Director General S.N. Pradhan ordered a vigilance inquiry. Action was also taken against some officials. The case was transferred to the agency headquarters’ Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by Deputy Director General (Ops) Sanjay Kumar Singh. According to NCB officials, the SIT detected serious procedural lapses on the part of the first team. No drugs was found on Aryan Khan. Consumption charge was invoked, but his medical examination had not been done in this regard. In his statement, his friend told the team that drugs he carried was not for Aryan Khan. There was no material available warranting the action of opening Aryan Khan’s mobile or WhatsApp chat. The mobile phone had not been seized formally. The SIT went through the impugned chat messages but did not find any evidence establishing his alleged role. An official pointed out that, as per court directive, WhatsApp chats could not by themselves be treated as primary evidence. The NCB chief has recently directed the officials not to take up small cases and focus on unearthing the cases which have national security implications and those with international links. “Stringent action will be taken against those who do not adhere to the orders,” said a senior official. Seven soldiers killed as vehicle with 26 soldiers falls in Ladakh’s Shyok river  [Seven soldiers were killed]( after a vehicle with 26 soldiers moving from the Transit Camp in Partapur in Ladakh to a forward location in Sub Sector Hanif skidded off the road and fell in Shyok river resulting in injuries to all occupants. [Army personnel gather at the site after a vehicle carrying jawans fell in the Shyok river at the Turtuk area in Ladakh on May 27, 2022. Photo: Twitter/@prasarbharti via PTI] “At approx 0900h, around 25km from Thoise, the vehicle skidded off the road and fell in Shyok river, to a depth of approx 50-60 feet, resulting in injuries to all occupants,” an Army source said on Friday. All 26 individuals have been evacuated to 403 Field Hospital at Partapur and surgical teams from Leh have moved to Partapur, the source said. Initially, all 26 individuals were evacuated to 403 Field Hospital at Partapur and surgical teams from Leh were moved to Partapur. “Seven individuals have been declared dead so far. There are grievous injuries to others as well,” the source said. All 19 were shifted to Western Command at Chandimandir later. Delhi court awards 4-year jail term to O. P. Chautala in assets case A Delhi court on Friday [awarded a four-year jail term to former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala]( in a disproportionate assets (DA) case. Special Judge Vikas Dhull imposed a fine of ₹50 lakh on the convict in the case of acquiring disproportionate assets from 1993 to 2006. The judge also directed the authorities concerned to confiscate four of his properties. The court had last week convicted Chautala and said the accused had failed to satisfactorily account for such dis-proportionality by proving his source of income or means by way of which he acquired assets during this period. The CBI had filed the case in 2005, and a charge sheet was filed on March 26, 2010, accusing him of amassing assets disproportionate to his legitimate income, between 1993 and 2006. According to the CBI’s FIR, Om Prakash Chautala, while functioning as Chief Minister of Haryana from July 24, 1999, to March 5, 2005, in collusion with his family members and others, accumulated assets, immovable and movable, disproportionate to his known lawful sources of income, in his name and in the names of his family members. The disproportionate assets were calculated to be ₹6.09 crore, 189.11% of his known sources of income. Al Jazeera says it will go to ICC over killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh The Al Jazeera news network said it will [submit a case file to the International Criminal Court]( on the [killing of reporter Shireen Abu Akleh]( who was shot dead earlier this month during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank. The Qatar-based network and the Palestinian Authority have accused Israeli soldiers of deliberately killing her. Israel rejects those allegations as a “blatant lie.” It says she was shot during a firefight between soldiers and Palestinian militants, and that only ballistic analysis of the bullet — which is held by the PA — can determine who fired the fatal shot. An AP reconstruction lent support to witnesses who say the veteran Palestinian-American correspondent was killed by Israeli fire, but any final conclusion may depend on evidence that has not yet been released. Al Jazeera said late Thursday it has formed an international legal team to prepare a case dossier to be submitted to the ICC. The court launched an investigation into possible Israeli war crimes last year. Israel is not a member of the ICC and has rejected the probe as being biased against it. Al Jazeera said the case file would also include the Israeli bombing of the building housing its offices in Gaza City during last year’s war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, “as well as the continuous incitements and attacks on its journalists operating in the occupied Palestinian territories.” Israel said the building — which also housed the Gaza office of The Associated Press — contained Hamas military infrastructure, but has not provided any evidence. The AP was not aware of any purported Hamas presence in the building and condemned the strike as “shocking and horrifying.” No one was hurt in the strike, which came after an Israeli warning to evacuate. “The Network vows to follow every path to achieve justice for Shireen, and ensure those responsible for her killing are brought to justice and held accountable in all international justice and legal platforms and courts,” Al Jazeera said. Israel says it cannot determine whether Palestinian militants or its own soldiers fired the fatal shot unless the PA hands over the bullet that killed Abu Akleh for ballistic analysis. The PA has refused to cooperate with Israel in any way, saying it doesn’t trust Israel to investigate itself. The PA announced the results of its own probe on Thursday, saying Abu Akleh was deliberately killed by Israeli forces and that there were no militants in the area. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz rejected the findings, saying “any claim that the IDF intentionally harms journalists or uninvolved civilians is a blatant lie,” referring to the Israeli military. Palestinian Attorney General Akram Al Khateeb, in announcing the results of the probe, said the bullet that killed her was an armor-piercing 5.56 mm NATO round and that it appeared to have been fired by a Ruger Mini-14 semiautomatic rifle. The Israeli military declined to comment on whether the gun described by the Palestinians matches one the military has previously identified as having possibly fired the fatal shot. It also declined to say whether the army uses the Ruger Mini-14 or whether any were in use during the May 11 raid in which Abu Akleh was killed, in the West Bank town of Jenin. Israel has publicly called for a joint investigation with the PA, with the participation of the U.S. The State Department said this week that neither Israel nor the PA have formally requested its assistance. Nearly 200 cases of monkeypox in more than 20 countries: WHO The World Health Organisation said [nearly 200 cases of monkeypox have been reported in more than 20 countries]( not usually known to have outbreaks of the unusual disease, but described the epidemic as “containable” and proposed creating a stockpile to equitably share the limited vaccines and drugs available worldwide. During a public briefing on Friday, the UN health agency said there are still many unanswered questions about how the current epidemic arose, but there is no evidence that any genetic changes in the virus are responsible for the unprecedented epidemic. “The first sequencing of the virus shows that the strain is not different from the strains we can find in endemic countries and (this outbreak) is probably due more to a change in human behaviour,” said Dr. Sylvie Briand, WHO’s director of pandemic and epidemic diseases. [An employee of the vaccine company Bavarian Nordic shows a picture of a vaccine virus on a display in a laboratory of the company in Martinsried near Munich on May 24, 2022. ] Earlier this week, a top adviser to WHO said the outbreak in Europe, U.S., Israel, Australia and beyond was likely linked to sex at two recent raves in Spain and Belgium. That marks a significant departure from the disease’s typical pattern of spread in central and western Africa, where people are mainly infected by animals like wild rodents and primates, and outbreaks haven’t spilled across borders. On Friday, Spanish authorities said the number of cases there had risen to 98, including one woman, whose infection is “directly related” to a chain of transmission that had been previously limited to men, according to officials in the region of Madrid. Doctors in Britain, Spain, Portugal, Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere have noted that the majority of infections to date have been in gay and bisexual men, or men who have sex with men. The disease is no more likely to affect people because of their sexual orientation and scientists warn the virus could infect others if transmission isn’t curbed. WHO’s Briand said that based on how past outbreaks of the disease in Africa have evolved, the current situation appeared “containable”. Still, she said WHO expected to see more cases reported in the future, noting “we don’t know if we are just seeing the peak of the iceberg (or) if there are many more cases that are undetected in communities,” she said. As countries including Britain, Germany, Canada and the U.S. begin evaluating how smallpox vaccines might be used to curb the outbreak, WHO said its expert group was assessing the evidence and would provide guidance soon. Dr. Rosamund Lewis, head of WHO’s smallpox department, said that “there is no need for mass vaccination,” explaining that monkeypox does not spread easily and typically requires skin-to-skin contact for transmission. No vaccines have been specifically developed against monkeypox, but WHO estimates that smallpox vaccines are about 85% effective. She said countries with vaccine supplies could consider them for those at high risk of the disease, like close contacts of patients or health workers, but that monkeypox could mostly be controlled by isolating contacts and continued epidemiological investigations. In Brief The [southwest monsoon is expected to reach Kerala during the next two to three days]( marking a sluggish start to the seasonal rains that are the lifeline of India’s agri-based economy.Earlier, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had forecast the onset over Kerala on Friday (May 27) with help from the remnants of Cyclone Asani, that struck the Bay of Bengal a fortnight ago. The forecast had a model error of four days. 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