Order on Provogue owner''s plea in drugs seizure case reserved

Mumbai, Feb 25 (PTI) The Bombay High Court today reservedorder on a petition filed by Salil Chaturvedi, owner ofleading fashion brand Provogue, seeking to restrain the stateGovernment from transferring investigations to another officerin a case filed by him against police for allegedly plantingthree vials of cocaine in his house six years ago.

The order was reserved by a bench headed by Justice AjayKhanvilkar after it heard arguments advanced by Chaturvedi andthe state government.

Chaturvedi was arrested after he was allegedly found inpossession of three grams of cocaine at his Lokhandwalabungalow in Mumbai in August 2005.

However, the police failed to prove the case followingwhich he was acquitted by a special NDPS court in April, 2009.

Chaturvedi then filed a private complaint in a court ofMetropolitan Magistrate alleging that cocaine was planted onhim by city police at the instance of an accused and sought aprobe into this. As the probe was transfered to anotherofficer, he moved the High Court challenging this move.

The High Court, in December 2009, transferred the case toCID and directed it to register an FIR. "Ever since the CIDhas taken up the case, they have been seeking extensions tocomplete their investigations. Even investigating officers arebeing constantly changed," Chaturvedi''s lawyer Ayaz Khan said.

Deputy Superintendent of Police, Ramesh Kade, who hasbeen investigating the case since January last year, had beenremoved from this case and a new investigating officerappointed to conduct the probe.