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A special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances court on Wednesday granted permission to the Mumbai Police Crime Branch to interrogate former head constable Dharmaraj Kalokhe in judicial custody.
Officials said that they would be interrogating him about several new points that have come to light during investigation, including an alleged dispute over Rs 25 lakh and 26 kg of mephedrone which are still unaccounted for.
Kalokhe was arrested in March this year with 114 kg of mephedrone in his house by the Satara police, and a further 12 kg of the drug was also found in his cupboard at the Marine Drive police station.
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Baby Patankar, with whom he was allegedly having an affair, is alleged to have been the one who gave him the drugs. She was arrested from Panvel on April 22 this year. Both Kalokhe and Patankar are currently in judicial custody.
“We have received permission from the court to interrogate Kalokhe in judicial custody and will soon be sending a team to Kolkhapur, where he is lodged in the central jail. There are several facts which we need to interrogate him about,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Atulchandra Kulkarni.
Patankar had allegedly told her interrogators that she gave a total of 150 kg of mephedrone to Kalokhe, out of which 124 kg was found in his possession. Crime Branch officials said that the whereabouts of the remaining 26 kg was one of the points about which he would be interrogated.
“We will also grill him about the Rs 25 lakh that he and (arrested accused) Jyotiram Mane extorted from a Malegaon-based businessman in 2013, based on Patankar’s tip off, and whether the sharing of the money led to a dispute between him and Patankar,” an officer said.
On Wednesday, Crime Branch officials completed searching the houses of the five policemen recently arrested in connection with the case.
They will now evaluate the assets and try to find if any of these were bought using proceeds of the drug racket, as the NDPS act provides for seizure of assets bought in this manner.
The Crime Branch might also write to the Anti Corruption Bureau recommending an inquiry if the assets are found to be disproportionate to the income of the accused.
mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com
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