A sessions court on Wednesday remanded the owner of Provogue apparel brand Salil Chaturvedi to judicial custody till August 31 in a drug case.
Chaturvedi, who was arrested by the Santacruz airport police on August 3 on charges of possessing cocaine powder at his residence and conspiring to supply drugs, had earlier filed a petition urging for reduction of the period of his police custody.
Chaturvedi had moved the sessions court demanding reduction in the police custody on the ground that police had already conducted searches in his office premises and residence.
However, Chaturvedi's plea has become redundant with the court remanding him to judicial custody. The bail application of Chaturvedi and Vishal Meghnani, an ex-employee of Provogue arrested in the case, will come up for hearing on August 22.
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Earlier this year, police had seized at Santacruz airport 4 vials of cocaine being smuggled into the city from Chennai and arrested Allywn Sequeira, who was the importer of the consignment. During investigation, Sequiera revealed that the original consignee of the vials was Meghnani, who was subsequently been arrested.
Police later arrested 2 APIs -- Suresh Shinde and Shantilal Jadhav -- attached to the Santacruz airport police station on charges of trying to change the cocaine powder with talcum powder and to extort money from Meghnani.