Aranha provided place where plan was hatched to help Lalit Patil escape: Police tell court

Today, Aranha, Bhushan Patil and Balkawade were produced before a magistrate court in Pune. Assistant public prosecutor Neelam Yadav Ithape sought police custody of three accused for seven days to probe their role in Patil’s escape from Sassoon hospital on October 2.

Police submitted that Aranha and Lalit Patil were admitted to the same ward in Sassoon hospital for treatment. The probe also revealed that Aranha made available a place to the other accused in this case for planning Patil’s escape. Aranha’s flat was used by Lalit Patil, according to Pune police commissioner Retesh Kumaarr.

Meanwhile, police told the court that after Lalit fled from the hospital, he allegedly used an ATM card that belonged to his manager Ashwin Kamat, to withdraw money.

A Nashik resident , Lalit Patil (34) was lodged in Yerwada Central Prison from December 2020 in connection with seizure of 20 kg Mephedrone worth Rs 20 crore from Chakan in October that year. He however complained of health issues on multiple occasions and managed to get himself admitted at Sassoon hospital for treatment. On September 30, after police arrested Lalit’s aide Subhash Mandal from near Sassoon Hospital with over 1.71 kg mephedrone, a probe revealed that Lalit had allegedly supplied the contraband to Mandal through hospital canteen worker Rauf Shaikh. An FIR was lodged against Patil, Mandal and Shaikh under the NDPS Act. While the probe was on, Lalit fled the hospital on October 2. A separate offence was lodged against him for escaping custody.

As per a probe, after fleeing from hospital, Lalit easily walked into a luxury hotel near Pune railway station and from there he went to another place by car. Police arrested the car driver Dattatraya Kashinath Doke (40) on October 6.

Police told the court today that Doke worked as a driver for Aranha, who also was undergoing treatment at the same ward 16 of Sassoon hospital. Police are probing whether Doke allegedly got instructions from Aranha to help Lalit in escaping.

Defence lawyer Bhagyashree Sortur, representing Arhana, argued that even after Lalit escaped, Arhana continued to be at Sassoon hospital for about three to four days and was later shifted to Taloja jail. “But police did not investigate Aranha when he was at the hospital in Pune,” Sortur said.

Defence lawyer opposed Aranha’s police custody, saying he was in Taloja jail in a different case and admitted to Sassoon for treatment, where he was under constant surveillance of the police, so he could not have given instructions to his staff. Advocate Sandeep Bali, representing accused Bhushan Patil and Balkawade opposed the police custody for the duo.

Judicial Magistrate (First Class) AC Birajdar remanded Aranha, Bhushan Patil and Balkawade to police custody till October 30.

A probe thereafter revealed that Bhushan and Balkawade allegedly started manufacturing Mephedrone at a factory in Shindegaon MIDC in Nashik under ‘guidance’ of Lalit Patil from December 2022, while the drug racketeer was still in jail.

In a separate case, Mumbai police raided the factory in Nashik last month and seized Mephedrone worth Rs 300 crores and other material from the spot. During investigation of this case, Mumbai police had arrested Lalit Patil on October 17.

Meanwhile, police had also arrested Nashik-based lawyer Pradnya Kamble (39) and her aide Archana Nikam (23) on October 18 for allegedly planning the escape of Lalit Patil from Sassoon hospital. Later, police arrested Kamble in the drug seizure case.

Aranha was arrested by the ED on March 10 earlier this year under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for allegedly siphoning off loans of over Rs 20 crore disbursed to the group by Pune’s Cosmos Cooperative Bank Ltd. The ED had alleged that loans given by the bank for the school run by the Rosary Education Group were instead misused.