At 12.45 am on a Wednesday night, Mumbai Police finally caught its most hunted criminal in recent times – bringing a month-and-a-half long search to an end.
Shashikala ‘Baby’ Patankar, the largest ‘meow meow’ peddler in Mumbai is in police custody till April 28, 2015.
‘Meow Meow’ or mephedrone is a designer drug that is sold as white, powdered crystals and can be injected, swallowed or snorted. It is extremely popular in Mumbai, so much so that according to recent Mumbai Police estimates, eight out of every 10 drug addicts being treated at rehab centres in the city, are users of mephedrone.
But who is Shashikala ‘Baby’ Patankar?
From Milk Bottles to White Powder
Shashikala Patankar was the youngest of six siblings and the only girl among them. Nicknamed ‘Baby’ at a young age, she sold milk bottles for a living in the Siddhartha Nagar slum in Worli, according to a report by The Indian Express.
The transition from milk bottles to drugs happened simulatenous with the realisation that the latter would obviously earn her more money. Therefore, she started dealing brown sugar and hashish. While her ‘dealings’ were initially under the radar, her trade expanded during the 80s and 90s.
At some point the female drug lord moved out of her husband Ramesh Patankar’s home into a separate house with her sons. It was during this period also that she was accused of murder. Her nephews Manish and Vivek Mazgaonkar have filed a case against Shashikala, charging her with burning their mother to death in 1993.
Narcotics officers in Mumbai have called the murder a bitter offshoot of a rivalry, since Mazgaonkar’s mother had also started peddling brown sugar and other drugs – challenging Shashikala’s position.The brothers have written to the police asking them to book Shashikala for murder.
A few years ago, Shashikala switched to mephedrone or ‘Meow Meow’. Not only is Meow Meow more easily available than other addictive drugs like cocaine – until February 2015, it was not covered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS).
The Final Showdown
The search for Shashikala Patankar started in earnest when a police team seized 114 kg of mephedrone from constable Dharmaraj Kalokhe’s home. According to a report, Kalokhe claimed that the drugs belonged to a Customs official and were given to him by Shashikala for safekeeping.
A 100-member team was deployed to track her down. But a month’s search yielded no results. She was finally arrested trying to enter Mumbai, when the police got out word to her that her property stands to be attached and she would be “targeted if she did not surrender”.