Mumbai: How Sameer Wankhede’s case against city’s best-known paanwala unravelled

The NCB team took several sachets from the paan shop, claiming that a field testing kit had shown traces of cannabis in them

MUMBAI: A co-owner of South Mumbai’s famous ‘Muchhad Paanwala’ shop, who was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) for alleged drug possession in January 2021, was discharged by a Special Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act (NDPS) court last week.

Mumbai, India - February 20, 2023: Ramkumar Tiwari, co-owner of paan shop Muchhad Paanwala, at Kemps Corner, in Mumbai, India, on Monday, February 20, 2023. (Photo by Anshuman Poyrekar/ Hindustan Times) (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

Ramkumar Tiwari was arrested by the NCB’s zonal director Sameer Wankhede after the arrest of a British national, Karan Sajnani, and his sisters Rahila and Shaista Furniturewala from Bandra on January 9. The agency claimed to have seized about 200 kilograms of marijuana from the three, although Sajnani maintained that he was falsely implicated.

Ramkumar, one of the four sons of Pandit Jaishankar Tiwari who started the celebrated paan shop at Kemps Corner in the late 1970s, was accused of stocking marijuana-laced products. The NCB had claimed that he sold contraband through his shop, and that after the raid on him, he confessed to having been involved in the illegality.

The NCB team took several sachets from the paan shop, claiming that a field testing kit had shown traces of cannabis in them—a claim that was subsequently negated by the government’s Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), which said that it found no trace of narcotics in the articles seized by the NCB team.

“We pointed out that the FSL report was negative,” said advocate Karan Singh Rajput who appeared for Tiwari. “The vegetative material was not detected as cannabis. Tiwari was booked under Sections 8 (c) (prohibition of certain operations) with Sections 20 (b) (punishment for contravention in relation to cannabis plant of the NDPS act, 1985), and it was claimed that he was also involved in a conspiracy with Sajnani and others.”

Rajput argued before Special NDPS judge Sunil Patil that the prosecution could not prove any alleged conspiracy and collusion between Tiwari and the others. “There was no admissible evidence to frame charges against him,” he said. The court accepted the argument and said that a chargesheet had been filed in the case but since there was no evidence to frame charges against the accused, he was discharged from the case.

The NCB had also arrested the late Sameer Khan, son-in-law of NCP leader Nawab Malik in the case. In July 2021, the agency had filed a chargesheet against Rahila Furniturewala, her sister Shaista, British national Karan Sejnani, Sameer Khan, Anuj Keshwani and Ram Kumar Tiwari.

In September 2021, Khan was granted bail by a court. He died in November 2024 in an accident.

“We believed in the judiciary, and today truth has prevailed. Satyameva Jayate,” said Tiwari in a tongue-in-cheek reference to a trope associated with Sameer Wankhede.

Tiwari has raised the bar on the humble paan—his clients were spoilt for choice with the imaginative picks on offer, which included Muchhad Ferrero Rocher paan, Muchhad brownie-gasm, choco flight paan (stuffed with dry fruits), Oreo baked cheesecake paan, coconut ball paan and Jaipuria paan (with its signature hit of gulkand, menthol and aniseed).

The Tiwaris, whose clients include A-list politicians, actors, industrialists and bankers, claim to have the best chocolate paans in the city. Their prices range between ₹40 and ₹1,000. Tiwari set up his website in the ’90s, and today the paans can be ordered through Zomato and Swiggy.

As for the name ‘Muchhad’, immensely popular since the 1990s, and all the men of the family sporting long twirled moustaches, Tiwari had once said that both were a legacy from his great-grandfather. “Moustaches are a mark of responsibility in the righteous way and we are proud of it,” he said. “Saadhus and rishis were known to have moustaches; so all of us have them.”

Today Muchhad Paanwala has six branches in the city—at Kemps Corner, Khetwadi, Mumbai Central, Girgaum, Nepean Sea Road and Colaba. All are operated by the family members.