21-Year-Old Stripped, Beaten And Jailed For Carrying Drugs, Six Months Later Its Proved To Be Talcum Powder

On August 27th last year, Aman Khan was stopped at a nakabandi on Andheri West Link Road. He was prepared to pay a fine for riding without a helmet, but he was arrested instead for the possession of 150 grams of mephedrone - street name meow-meow - the relatively new chemical drug which queenpin Shashikala Patankar, aka Baby built her Mumbai empire on.

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Khan was released last week when the Forensic Science Laboratories (FSL) in Kalina returned the samples saying that the illicit substance the 21-year-old was sent to jail for was neither a narcotic nor a psychotropic. "The white powder seized by the cops was not mephedrone at all, it was talcum powder. It was only after these test results that he was granted bail," said Aman's lawyer EA Sahi.

In November last year, the case against Head Constable Dharmaraj Kalokhe, accused along with five other police officers of collaborating with drug boss Baby, started to collapse under similar circumstances - when the Kalina FSL found that the 100 kg of white crystalline substance seized at Kalokhe's Satara home and the 12 kg retrieved from his locker, were monosodium glutamate (MSG), commonly called Ajinomoto.

While Kalokhe was arrested on the eve of his retirement, the young marketing executive, fresh from his Bachelor in Mass Media degree, and working his first job, says his career is ruined. He has been interrogated, allegedly stripped and beaten, threatened, and finally imprisoned for over six months. And he says it was all a set-up, though he's not sure who to blame¡ª the cops, or his erstwhile colleagues.

Though he's now been released, Aman's whole sorry saga began because was riding a bike that did not belong to him. Last year, Aman was working with Ayaz Khan and Imran Sed at One Entertainment Inc, an event management company. Both his colleagues made special requests of Aman on that particular day- Ayaz needed to borrow some money, and Imran asked to swap bikes, to take his girlfriend out on the town. "He wanted my bike as it is more fancy," said Aman.

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Ayaz had planned to meet Aman later that evening, so they could go pull out cash together. "As it was raining we could only meet around 10.30 pm. We went towards the lane opposite Lotus petrol pump," said Aman. The officer at the nakabandi, Inspector Ranshivre of Oshiwara police, had received a licence plate tip-off, about Imran Sed a drug dealer, travelling on that particular bike. When the two were searched, 50 grams were found on Ayaz, and 150 grams in a pouch, wrapped in a polythene bag were recovered from Imran's bike. Imran Sed is wanted in connection with the case and has been absconding since last August.

Inspector Ranshivre first asked Aman if he was Imran, before bundling them both into the police Qualis. Aman and Ayaz were then booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances act, which Aman claims came as a complete shock to him. "I tried speaking to them and even offered money to release us," said Aman. After being remanded in two-day police custody, Aman alleges that he was thrashed by four cops for hours and was asked to sign a statement, which the police had already prepared. "I was told that Ayaz had already signed the statement accusing me of dealing in drugs. I refused but ultimately had to sign when they threatened to slap my mother in front of me. I was stripped naked and then again beaten up."

Aman and Ayaz were sent to judicial custody on 7 September 2015, but Ayaz was granted bail within a week, since the amount of contraband he was caught with was a third of what was recouped from the bike. Aman continued to languish in lock-up. The Kalina lab finally submitted their report approximately ten days ago, stating that the substance seized by the police had tested negative for any narcotics or psychotropics. But Aman is still reeling from the trauma, and it hasn't been a happy homecoming. "No one wants to speak to me. They think I am a criminal. But I will take this case to its logical end and come out clean," he said. Oshiwara police senior inspector Subhash Khanvilkar however, is still pursuing the case. "We have sent the material for a second opinion to Hyderabad laboratories." The materials seized from constable Kolakhe's locker were also examined at three separate forensic facilities; all said the seized substance was ajinomoto.