ETimes reached out to Arbaaz Merchant’s lawyer Taraq Sayyed who confirmed this development and also revealed that his client, Arbaaz was not cleared by the NCB. Sayyed said, “Arbaaz has not got a clean chit, only Aryan has been given a clean chit. As far as Arbaaz is concerned they have charged him for small quantities.” Arbaaz Merchant is Aryan Khan’s close friend and he was one of the co-accused in the drugs case.
Arbaaz’s father Aslam Merchant is also a lawyer by profession. ETimes reached out to Aslam, but we received no reply to our query. It had been previously reported that when NCB officials had searched Arbaaz and Aryan at the cruise ship terminal in Mumbai, small quantities of Narcotics were obtained from Arbaaz’s possession. Aryan and Arbaaz had been taken in NCB custody in October 2021 and they both had procured bail 25 days later on October 28.