CHENNAI: Former Vilathikulam MLA Ravishankar (DMK) was remanded in judicial custody by a NDPS Court in the city on Friday.
S Kalavathy, Special Judge for Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Court, remanded Ravishankar in judicial custody till November 12.
According to the prosecution, on information that heroin was being smuggled in a hotel on Moore Street in Mannady, the NIB CID conducted a search in the hotel room, where Ravishankar was staying, and seized the heroin. He was arrested on the same day. Searches were made at his residence and on his associates and totally 4,250 grams of heroin, worth about Rs 4.2 crore in the international market, were seized.
A case was registered in 2003 under the NDPS Act. The chargesheet was laid in 2004. When Ravishankar was taken to Madurai in connection with some other case, he escaped and the case was split up. The NDPS court convicted the other accused to 10 years rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on each of them on December 23, 2009. While so, Ravishankar was arrested in connection with a robbery case in Ashok Nagar.
After obtaining PT warrant, the police produced him before the NDPS Court, which ordered his remand on Friday.