Lalit Patil’s escape: Ajit Pawar pulls up Sassoon hospital, dean says drug racketeer wasn’t admitted under pressure
Patil was arrested in connection with a multi-crore mephedrone racket busted by the Pimpri-Chinchwad police in October 2020. He was then sent to Yerawada Central Prison, but was admitted to Sassoon hospital in June for the treatment of hernia and tuberculosis.
Ajit Pawar reportedly told the Sassoon administration to avoid creating "a negative'' image for the hospital. ''I will not tolerate a negative image about Sassoon hospital among the people,” he reportedly told the dean. (Express photo)
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A day after Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar pulled up officials of the government-run Sassoon hospital in Pune in connection with the escape of drug racketeer Lalit Patil from police custody, the hospital administration has denied that it was under pressure to admit him.
After state Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders alleged that Public Works Minister Dadaji Bhuse had forced the Sassoon hospital administration to admit the drug racketeer and give special treatment to him, Dr Sanjeev Thakur, dean of Sassoon Hospital and BJ Medical College, toldThe Indian Express, “I have not received any phone call from anyone… No one can put pressure on anyone. Doctors do their duty of providing treatment to patients… Till now, we have not received any such calls.”
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Patil was arrested in connection with a multi-crore mephedrone racket busted by the Pimpri-Chinchwad police in October 2020. He was then sent to Yerawada Central Prison, but was admitted to Sassoon hospital in June for the treatment of hernia and tuberculosis.
On September 30, Pune police arrested Lalit’s aide Subhash Mandal from near the hospital with over 1.71 kg of mephedrone worth Rs 2.14 crore. Officers alleged that Patil supplied the drug to Mandal through a staff member of the hospital canteen. On October 2, however, Patil fled from the hospital when he was being taken for an X-ray.
The NCP said the deputy chief minister has taken serious note of the recent developments at Sassoon hospital. ”A drug racketeer admitted to Sassoon was found supplying drugs from the hospital. He was undergoing treatment for months… And then he escapes… The deputy chief minister has taken serious note of the developments at the hospital and has asked the dean to put things in order,” a spokesperson for the party said.
Ajit reportedly told the Sassoon administration to avoid creating “a negative” image for the hospital. ”I will not tolerate a negative image about Sassoon hospital among the people,” he reportedly told the dean.
“Put your administration in order. I will ask the Medical Education Department to pay strict attention to the hospital’s functioning. Hasan Mushrif is an NCP minister. We are ready to do anything for Pune, but you have to take the necessary corrective steps. I do not want a repeat of the Lalit Patil case,” he said.
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Ajit told the administration that he will ensure that the hospital gets adequate stock of medicine and staff. “We will fulfill all requirements of the hospital but there should be no compromise on giving treatment to ordinary people. If I still get complaints, you will have to face action,” he told the administration.
The dean said he apprised Ajit about the initiatives undertaken by the hospital. “I told the deputy CM about the initiatives we were taking for the patients and public education. I told him that we have adequate stock of medicine and staff… The deputy CM told us to do more good work. He did not warn us,” Dr Thakur said.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
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