Cop smuggled drugs into city for a yr

MUMBAI: Deputy superintendent of police, Ashok Baburao Dhavale, who was apprehended with 1.5 kg heroin on Tuesday, regularly smuggled drugs from Kashmir and Rajasthan into the city for the last one year, said a police official. Dhavale used to work with Kashmir-based Dr Johar, who is believed to be a major drug supplier.
In fact, Dhavale had, last month, attended Dr Johar's son's wedding in Kashmir, police sources said.
The Mumbai crime branch arrested Dhavale, who is attached to the Protection of Civil Rights (PCR) cell and his associate Amar Dilip Singh alias Munna with 1.5 kg heroin in the police jeep near Worli sea face. On Wednesday, they were booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and remanded in police custody till March 9. Police officials told the court that they wanted to interrogate Dhavale to learn more about his alleged connections with the drug mafia, his source and the buyers. Dhavale has so far told the cops that he had given Rs 10 lakh to Munna to smuggle heroin from Rajasthan, after which they would sell the goods for Rs 15 lakh.
The crime branch on Tuesday received a tip-off from a woman who was supposed to collect the drugs. The informer has several drug-related cases pending against her. A police official said that she would be a witness in Dhavale's case.
The police also recovered a telephone diary, credit and debit cards and two mobile phones from Dhavale. A source said that the Narcotic Control Bureau officials had previously received information about Dhavale's smuggling activities, but they dismissed it as untrue.
The police also said that they would request the anti-corruption bureau to look into Dhavale's assets.
This is not the first time Dhavale has fallen foul of the law. In 2008, Dhavale was dismissed from the service under Article 311 of the Indian Constitution after state excise officials caught him and three others with 19 liquor boxes worth Rs 48,000 in a police jeep. He was then posted at Vikhroli police station. The liquor was smuggled in from Daman, where alcohol is cheaper as no sales tax and excise duty is levied. The liquor was smuggled from Daman where liquor is cheap as no sales tax and excise duty is levied. Dhavale challenged his dismissal and the Maharashtra Tribunal Administrative (MAT) ordered his reinstatement in 2008.
Police learnt that after his reinstatement in 2009, he went to a businessman in Dindoshi and demanded money, posing as an income tax official. The businessman had approached the police station but was recorded as a non cognizable complaint, a source said.
ahmed.ali@timesgroup.com