India's former atorney General Mukul Rohatgi had represented Aryan Khan in the Bombay High Court. (File)
Driven to drinking "coffee after coffee", a desperately worried Shah Rukh Khan gave notes and suggestions to the legal team working for his son Aryan Khan's bail, high-profile lawyer Mukul Rohatgi shared on Thursday, calling him "savvy and hands-on".
After Aryan Khan was granted bail by the Bombay High Court, Shah Rukh Khan responded with "tears of joy".
Aryan Khan, 23, was arrested after a Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) raid on a cruise ship party on October 2. He has been in Mumbai's Arther Road jail for three weeks.
Mukul Rohatgi, former Attorney General of India, fought for Aryan Khan's bail in the High Court for three days. Shah Rukh Khan, one of India's biggest movie stars, spent much of those days holed up with the legal team, monitoring every development and writing his suggestions on papers.
"I got instructions from Shah Rukh Khan...who was in constant touch with me," Mr Rohatgi told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
"Unfortunately, they had lost in the lower court. So it came to the High Court and one month has gone by. And the parents were very, very worried. And that is why they were taking a very great interest in the case. Shah Rukh Khan had given up all his professional activities. And he was very much available at all times. He was in fact making notes to help this legal team of what he remembered about those chats and about this and about that...," Mr Rohatgi said.
The lawyer said Shah Rukh Khan would write notes on what he believed could help strengthen Aryan Khan's case.
"He is not a lawyer. But he has a very strong common sense and perception. He was trying to tell me the background...where his son studied...who all did he know and what those (WhatsApp) chats are about. He did not have those chats. The chats are on Aryan's phone and the phone is with them (NCB). He gave me all the background saying this could help you. He was very savvy and hands-on," Mr Rohatgi revealed.
"I'm sure he's today a relieved father and his mother (Gauri Khan) is a relieved mother."
Images showed a smiling SRK with the legal team shortly after his son got bail.
"Obviously, I met the father, not the mother. The father had tears of joy in his eyes. He has been a very worried father in the last three-four days that I was here and I am not even sure whether he had proper meals. He would be having coffee after coffee. And he was very, very worried. And I could see a big sense of relief on the father's face, last when I met him."
Though a trial could take a long time, Mr Rohatgi called bail a "big relief" simply because a young man is out of jail.
"He (Aryan) is a young person of an impressionable age. Long incarceration has the effect of bad influences on young people when put in bad company," said the lawyer.