Court acquits Provogue owner Salil Chaturvedi

The ordeal lasted more than four-and-a-half-years. Salil Chaturvedi, 34, director and promoter of Provogue, was a relieved man on Friday, after special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) judge AT Amlekar acquitted him of the charges of possessing cocaine and permitting the use of his Provogue Lounge (which has closed down) in Phoenix Mill Compound for drug consumption. But he looked back in anger.
“My faith in the judiciary has been reinstated.

I went through great trauma during the 36 days in custody. But when will real justice be done? Of what I have gone through, my company has gone through, and the defamation...” he said after coming out of the special NDPS court in Kala Ghoda.

Santa Cruz Airport police arrested Chaturvedi on August 2, 2005. A raid of his Lokhandwala bungalow had allegedly led to the cops finding three vials of cocaine — of one gram each — wrapped in a towel in his bathroom. Chaturvedi’s  defence had been that the police officers had planted the cocaine to “frame him”. An inquiry against these officers is pending with the Narcotics Control Bureau. (see box).

Chaturvedi’s employees — Vishal Maghnani, CEO, Provogue Lounge and Alwyn Sequiera, manager, were also arrested. On a tip-off by Jet Airways, a parcel containing cocaine, sent by Sequiera to Maghnani in Chennai, was allegedly recovered. Another employee, Joe Sequiera, was also arrested.

Assistant inspectors Sanjay Shinde and Shantilal Jadhav, who wanted to extort money from Maghnani, tried to replace the cocaine with boric powder. They were arrested in July 2005. Three Tanzanians — Thomas Odombo, Sako Syed and David — were arrested peddling drugs outside the lounge.

Bombay High Court, however, separated the cases, and the police had to file three chargesheets. Chaturvedi’s alleged offence was restricted to the alleged seizure of cocaine in his house, with no links to the entire conspiracy which involved a total contraband of 867 gm of cocaine.

When the trial began, the prosecution examined six witnesses, cops who helped in the investigation, the investigating officer, a chemical analyst and a 27-year-old man who used to consume cocaine outside the Phoenix Mills compound. Too many contradictions in their accounts led to Chaturvedi acquittal of all charges.