After being on the run for over 40 days, 52-year-old drug peddler Shashikala alias Baby Patankar was today arrested by the Mumbai police in connection with a seizure of 110 kg of mephedrone drug in March.
This is the third arrest in the case. Earlier the police had arrested police constable Dharmaraj Kalokhe, with whom she was allegedly in a relationship, and her son Satish.
"We arrested Patankar in Panvel from a Mumbai-bound bus in the morning. A local court remanded her in police custody till April 28," said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Atulchandra Kulkarni.
The case was transferred from Marine Drive police station to the Mumbai crime branch because the crime was "sensitive and grave" in nature, police said.
"We treated this case as a challenge. After a hard and focused work by all of our units, the social service branch arrested Patankar this morning," added Kulkarni.
He said after the case was registered, Patankar fled to neighbouring Vashi from Mumbai. Later she returned here and stayed with her son's friends for three days and contacted a few lawyers. She then left for Kudal in the Sindhudurg district. Police finally zeroed in on her when she was coming back to Mumbai today.
Patankar's niece, a minor, who was accompanying her, was rescued by the police and would be produced before the child welfare committee.
Police had earlier said that Patankar and Kalokhe were in a relationship since 1996. Kalokhe, a head constable at Marine Drive police station, was arrested on March 9 after 110 kg of mephedrone with market value of crores of rupees was seized from his house in a village in Satara district.
The next day, 12 kg of mephedrone was found in Kalokhe's cupboard at the Marine Drive police station. He was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and is currently in judicial custody.
Mephedrone is a party drug is extremely popular in western countries and increasingly becoming a major drug of abuse in India.
