Drug peddler Baby Patankar's custody extended till May 6

The special court for NDPS cases on Sunday extended the police custody of an alleged woman drug peddler till May 6 after the police said they wanted to investigate her foreign trips.

Shashikala Patankar was arrested in connection with the recovery of mephedrone, a narcotic drug, from the possession of police constable Dharmaraj Kalokhe in March.

"Patankar's passport hasn't yet been found and she is giving evasive replies....We want to find out which all countries she travelled to and for what reasons," said the remand application filed by the Mumbai police's crime branch.
The prosecution also said that Patankar was a part of an international racket and police wanted to arrest other members. The investigators also wanted to `confront' her (bring face to face) with another alleged drug peddler, G Samuels, and question them together, it said.

Police have so far recovered only 122 kg of the drug found in Kalokhe's possession and wanted to unearth the rest of the consignment, it added.

Judge UB Hejib of the special court for Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act cases extended her police custody till May 6 as Patankar's lawyer N N Gawankar said he did not have any objection.

Gawankar, however, argued that Patankar earned a meagre commission by transferring drugs to Kalokhe to earn livelihood for her family. "She had stopped this business for the past one year, we want the truth to be out and we have claimed that she just took delivery from Samuel and handed to the police constable," he said.