Salil gets bail in drugs case

A local court today granted bail to the owner of Provogue apparel, Salil Chaturvedi, who was arrested for possessing cocaine. He was release...

A local court today granted bail to the owner of Provogue apparel, Salil Chaturvedi, who was arrested for possessing cocaine. He was released on a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and asked to appear before the investigating agency at regular intervals.

Chaturvedi, in his bail plea, said the probe was over and the police had filed the chargesheet.

Besides Chaturvedi, others named in the chargesheet are: Vishal Manghnani, a former Provogue employee, designer Allwyn Sequeira and his brother Joseph, assistant police inspectors Sanjay Shinde and Shantilal Jadhav and three Tanzanian nationals — David Abdullah Lukanga, Thoma (Thomas) Udeije and Sayyad Juma Hashim.

Story continues below this ad

Police yesterday filed chargesheet against the apparel manufacturer and eight others, including two suspended colleagues. The trail goes back to January 26, when airport officials at Santacruz seized a Chennai-bound parcel containing 3 gm of cocaine.

Soon after seizing the parcel containing the cocaine, officials told the sender, Allwyn Sequeira, to wait and contacted the police. Sequeira fled and was arrested on March 27.

During investigation, he named the other accused. Joseph Sequeira, Allwyn’s brother was arrested on May 5. The brothers later got bail.

As the probe progressed, the police found that two of their colleagues, assistant police inspectors Sanjay Shinde and Shantilal Jadhav, too were involved. They arrested the two officers on July 2 and July 11, accusing them of tampering with evidence and trying to replace the cocaine with boric powder for a bribe of Rs 2 lakh.

Story continues below this ad

The arrests of the two Tanzanian nationals, alleged to be peddlers of the drug, followed. On June 23, the police arrested Manghnani. A week later, they took Chaturvedi into custody.