Mumbai: Baby Patankar got drugs from Narcotics Control Bureau informer

The Mumbai crime branch investigating the narcotics case involving peddler Shashikala Patankar alias Baby said that the Tiruchirappali-based supplier who was recently arrested in connection with the case was a reward-winning informer of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

The Mumbai crime branch investigating the narcotics case involving peddler Shashikala Patankar alias Baby said that the Tiruchirappali-based supplier who was recently arrested in connection with the case was a reward-winning informer of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

Drug-dealer-Baby-Patankar-was-arrested-by-the-Mumbai-police-in-connection-with-a-seizure-of-110-kg-of-mephedrone-drug-in-March-HT-photo

The officials added that the accused, Paulraj Duraiswami Padiachi, had been arrested by the NCB in narcotics cases earlier as well.

“As he was NCB’s informer, he had tipped them off on several occasions and at least three times he had won rewards for his tip-offs. However, he has been claiming that he had not come to Mumbai in the past one year,” said a crime branch officer.

The investigators said that Padiachi stayed in Chembur whenever he was in Mumbai and worked as a loader at the Sahar airport’s cargo section.

Padiachi has known Mannikan Samuels, a close aide of Patankar who was arrested earlier, for the past 15 years.

Samuels used to work as a loader with the postal department and would smuggle narcotics through book posts, officers learnt.

In 2007, Samuels began to supply Patankar with the banned Mephedrone (MD) provided to him by Padiachi.

While being interrogated, Padiachi claimed that he has never met Patankar and all his dealings with her were routed through Samuels.