Mumbai Crime Branch records DCP's statement in Meow Meow case

The crime branch on Saturday recorded the statement of one of their deputy commissioners of police (DCP), Namdev Chavan, whose name had cropped up after the arrest of senior police inspector Suhas Gokhale, who had been attached to the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC).

Meow meow drug case: Bail granted to suspended police officer in Mumbai

Chavan, who had been attached to the ANC, has been transferred to the traffic department of the Mumbai Police. Gokhale was granted bail on June 24 by the special NDPS court in connection with the alleged seizure of mephedrone from the cupboard of police constable Dharmaraj Kalokhe.

After his arrest, Gokhale had claimed he had passed on information to DCP Chavan that he had information of Kalokhe having a huge consignment of drugs in his possession, but no action had been taken. The crime branch had arrested Gokhale saying that he had never passed on any information about Kalokhe to anyone.

They had also claimed that Gokhale had also passed infomation about Baby Patankar, another accused in the case, to his superiors very late. They had also argued that Gokhale should have approached senior authorities like Commissioner Rakesh Maria or Joint Commissioner Atul Chandra Kulkarni.

"To verify Gokhale's claim, it was important to record the statement of Chavan, his DCP at that time and to check whether Gokhale had informed him about Kalokhe initially, that he had a huge consignment of drugs in Satara. And secondly, when did he inform Chavan about Baby, another accused who was wanted then, and is a drug lord," said a senior crime branch officer.

The crime branch had sent a pointer to Chavan regarding these queries, but called him on Saturday to record his statement and clear their doubts. It has been learnt that Chavan told the crime branch that Gokhale had informed him about Kalokhe, but there was no concrete information that was passed on.