Meow Meow

Description

Call her a police informant, a slumlord, a successful businesswoman, a caring grandmother-but do not call Shashikala ‘Baby’ Patankar a drug dealer.

On 9 March 2015, a constable in the Mumbai Police force, Dharmaraj Kalokhe, was arrested by the local police for possession of a white powder believed to be the synthetic drug Mephedrone. His partner, Shashikala ‘Baby’ Patankar, was the informant. Later she was arrested by the police, too.

In the days that followed, the Maharashtra Police declared her a criminal and the media labelled her ‘drug queen’, but Baby always considered herself an innocent. Unearthing new facts about the case, this book is a blow-by-blow account of Baby’s capture and the investigation that followed. It is also the story of Mephedrone – better known as Meow Meow – which, when it entered the schools, colleges and pubs of Mumbai, changed the rules of the game and the enforcement of narcotics laws in the city.

Fast and pacy, Meow Meow is the tale of one of Mumbai’s most baffling crime and the intriguing life that Baby Patankar led.

Srinath Rao is a Mumbai-based crime reporter who used to work with The Indian Express. At the Express, he was part of the reporting team behind award-winning global investigations such as the Swiss Leaks, the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers. He is currently an independent journalist based in Mumbai.