Constable Dharmaraj Kalokhe

Anti-Narcotics cell

Mephedrone

fake voter ID card

Dismissed, ‘Baby’ Patankar, her son and two others charged with drug possession, forgery and abetment of crime.The Mumbai Crime Branch has dropped all charges against five policemen, including former Senior Inspector of thein Mumbai Suhas Gokhale, in one of the biggest drug busts in the city involving alleged drug lord Shashikala Patankar alias ‘Baby’. The case pertains to 124 kg of, also called Meow-Meow, recovered from the home and locker of the dismissed police constable Dharmaraj Kalokhe in 2015.The case fell after a second forensic report in March this year confirmed that the drug found was Monosodium glutamate (MSG) colloquially called ‘ajinomoto’ and not Mephedrone.In a charge sheet filed last week, the Mumbai Crime Branch has now simply charged Dharmaraj Kalokhe with possessing 2 grams of hash, a forged ID card and two bottles of liquor, which was also recovered from his locker.Shashikala Patankar, her son Satish Patankar and two others have been charged with forgery, possession of drug and abetment of crime.The charge sheet claims that “a lot of effort” was made to collect evidence but nothing was found to support the policemen’s role in the crime. Commenting on the development in the case, Ghokhale, who was arrested a day before his retirement, said that the officers who wrongfully arrested him should be prosecuted.“In law, there is a maxim ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. They have exonerated me after four years and two months for an offence I never committed. How can I claim I got justice?” he told Mirrror.Ghokhale said that his arrest will have life- long consequences, and he did not expect this treatment after putting in 30 years of service. “It took them two lines to say they found no evidence against me. I was due for retirement the day after. All I asked them to do was wait till I was given my farewell, but they did not listen.”On March 9, 2015, the police had arrested head constable Dharmaraj Kalokhe and seized 112 kg of Mephedrone from his house in a village in Satara district. The police had also seized 12 kg of the drug, two grams of hash, ain the name of ‘Baby Patankar’s husband and two bottles of liquor from his locker inside Marine Drive police station. With Kalokhe’s arrest, the police claimed to have busted one of the biggest drug nexuses in the city.On May 29, 2015, the Crime Branch had arrested Gokhale, police inspector Gautam Gaikwad, sub-inspector Sudhakar Sarang, assistant sub-inspector Jyotiram Mane and head constable Yeshwant Parate in connection with this drug seizure.The police alleged that constable Kalokhe’s alleged paramour ‘Baby’ Patankar was also involved in the case. She was arrested after being on the run for 40 days. Two separate cases were registered in the case by the Mumbai and Satara police.The first test was conducted at the Forensic Laboratory in Kalina and tested negative. The defence claimed that the officers were arrested despite the negative report. The Crime Branch then obtained an order for re-testing of the samples from High Court.This second analysis of the substance was conducted at the Central Forensic Laboratory, Chandigarh, where the substance tested negative for mephedrone.