Mephedrone cartel: Investigation officer submits confidential report to court in sealed envelope

The Crime Branch of the Pune City Police has launched a coordinated probe into a large-scale mephedrone manufacturing and smuggling operation led by Patil and Arvindkumar Lohare (39), the ‘chemistry expert’ behind the operation. The investigation began with the seizure of mephedrone valued at Rs 2.14 crore by the Anti Narcotics Cell of Pune City Police on September 30, near the state-run Sassoon General Hospital.

The Pune police have till now identified 14 accused in the case and have arrested 13 of them. On Monday the court extended the police custody of Bhushan Patil, who is Lalit Patil’s younger brother, Lohare alias ‘doctor’, Zeeshan Shaikh, Lalit Patil, Shivaji Shinde, Rohitkumar Chawdhary, Atik Amir Khan and Harishchandra Pant till November 24. Five other accused identified as Subhash Mandal, Rauf Shaikh, Abhishek Balkawade, Rehan Ansari and Pradnya Kamble have been remanded to magisterial custody.

During the court hearing, Tambe, who is leading the Crime Branch team of Pune police which is investigating the case, submitted a confidential report to the court detailing the progress of the investigation and some key new revelations on the operations of the drugs cartel, the financial transactions and roles played by key racketeers. The court cited the confidential report while extending the police custody of eight of the accused. The Pune police had invoked MCOCA in the case on November 1.

The Indian Express earlier reported that Lohare, a masters degree holder chemist and nicknamed ‘doctor’, and Chowdhary (30), a college dropout and self-taught synthesis expert who was nicknamed ‘scientist’, together masterminded the synthesis of potent narcotic mephedrone using 10 commonly available chemicals in the mephedrone-manufacturing syndicate led by Lalit Patil. Investigation has also revealed that Lohare and Lalit Patil orchestrated their plan to establish their Nashik-based mephedrone manufacturing unit in the hospital ward of Yerawada Central Prison, where Lalit strategically kept coming, allegedly feigning various medical issues for repeated admissions.

Lalit Patil, who was admitted to the prisoners’ ward at Sassoon General Hospital, escaped on the evening of October 2, a day prior to his scheduled surgery for hernia. He was rearrested by Mumbai police on October 17 from a village near Bengaluru.

Police probe has revealed that since his arrest in the Pimpri Chinchwad case in December 2020, Lalit Patil, who had been sent to Yerawada Prison, managed to spend 16 months in the Sassoon hospital ward by on various medical grounds.

In October, the Mumbai police had raided a factory in Nashik and seized mephedrone worth Rs 300 crore from the spot. Police said Lalit’s brother Bhushan Patil was running the factory.