Shashikala alias Baby Patankar, the alleged drug lord from Worli, has moved the Bombay High Court, seeking directions to the Mumbai police to return the valuables seized from her house — cash, property/bank documents, cars, mobile phones and CCTV cameras.

Patankar was arrested in April for her involvement in a case wherein huge quantities of the drug Mephedrone, popularly known as M-Cat, were seized from her alleged business partner, constable Dharmaraj Kalokhe. She was later released on bail by the sessions court after laboratory reports revealed that the seized material was not contraband.

Patankar, in her application, has claimed that in the police raids 20 mobile phones, three cars, original property documents, Rs35,000 cash, bank documents, etc were seized and no panchnama for the same has been done. Further, the police also dismantled the CCTV cameras installed in her Worli house.

The petition, which will come up for hearing on November 30, seeks directions to the police to return and reinstall the CCTV cameras. It also prays for directions to authorities to disclose to court the measures taken by the police machinery to ascertain and confirm whether any seized substance is a "narcotic drug" or a "psychotropic substance" before arresting any person for offences punishable under the NDPS Act.

While releasing Patankar on bail, the special NDPS court had observed that merely because the application to resend samples of drug found in a constable's locker in Marine Drive to a chemical lab was pending in court, the accused did not have not be "debarred from enjoying the liberty…".

Moreover, the court had noted that grant or rejection of the bail could not be postponed for an indefinite period as it is common knowledge that report of either FSL or CFSL, except in exceptional cases, is not received timely or quickly due to diverse reasons.

On March 9, Kalokhe was arrested by the Satara police after they found 110kg of Mephedrone (M-Cat) at his Kanheri village residence. The next day 12kg of the suspected contraband were found in Kalokhe's Marine Drive police station locker. Following this, then Mumbai police chief Rakesh Maria had dismissed Kalokhe from service and transferred Pravin Chinchalkar, senior inspector of Marine Drive police station, to Special Branch. On April 14, the Marine Drive police had arrested Patankar's son Satish for his alleged role in his father's drug business.