Who is Sundip Dhunay and how a 500-gram tip-off brought his mephedrone empire down?

The drug haul

In one of the biggest-ever mephedrone hauls in the country till date, the Pune City police’s Crime Branch seized around 1,800 kg of mephedrone worth Rs 3,700 crore in several raids conducted at a chemical manufacturing factory in Daund taluka, two godowns in Pune’s Vishrantwadi, some shops in South Extension in New Delhi and some more places in Sangli district. The probe has unveiled a sophisticated production line for the synthetic stimulant, being run from a chemical factory in the guise of a pharmaceutical unit at an industrial cluster in Kurkumbh under Daund taluka. Probe has also revealed that a part of the drugs from the cartel was being smuggled to London in ready-to-eat food packets shipped by a courier agency in Delhi.

Who is Sundip Dhunay?

Dhunay’s name cropped up on the radar of central investigation agencies in India after his arrest in 2016 by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), the country’s apex anti-smuggling agency tasked with detecting and curbing smuggling of contraband drugs, and illicit international trade in wildlife, among others. The DRI had arrested him from Patna after an investigation revealed that he was running a massive mephedrone production unit from a chemical factory in Kurkumbh.

To put it in context, this DRI action had come just one year after mephedrone had been officially added to the list of contraband drugs in India. It was not included in the list of contrabands under the NDPS Act till the early 2010s. However, multiple seizures of large quantities of the drug and rising instances of its consumption as a narcotic in large cities prompted authorities to include it in the list in 2015. Investigators believed that Dhunay’s mephedrone manufacturing might have been going on for several months before the action in August 2016.

Prior to Dhunay’s arrest in Patna, the DRI had arrested his accomplices in Pune. Officials said that Dhunay, who is around 42 now, had a brush with the law before 2016 when he was arrested in a kidnapping case in Bihar’s Purnia for which he spent some time in prison. “Our preliminary probe suggests that because his father had lived in the UK, Dhunay has a British passport. As of now, we do not know how much time he spent in the UK nor any more details of family or education are available,” another officer said.

The probe by the Pune city police has revealed that Dhunay has masterminded a ‘major vertical’ of the cartel they have busted. Their investigation suggested that when Dhunay was lodged in Pune’s Yerawada prison in the past after his arrest by the DRI, he had started putting together his crew for the next operation. After he secured bail, he started using the people he met in prison as transporters in the present racket. The Pune police are now probing the linkages between the past and present case and also the local linkages of Dhunay. The police have not released details on exactly when the Kurkumbh factory, which was raided recently, had started operating and how much mephedrone has been produced in it till now.

The fall of the drug empire

Speaking about the sequence of the probe, Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar said, “The first tip-off obtained by the Crime Branch was for just about 500 gram of mephedrone being transported in a car and destined for a specific location. This consignment was intercepted. The investigation into this seizure led our team to one more suspect from whom 500 gram more was recovered. There was a discrepancy between what these suspects told us and what the examination of the CCTV footage revealed. This prompted further probe and we identified the third suspect. From this suspect, we recovered 750 gram initially.”

Amitesh Kumar further said, “The information obtained from the interrogation of these suspects was cross-referenced with more CCTV footage and that led us to godowns in Vishrantwadi where we seized 55 kilogram of hidden mephedrone.” In this godown, the mephedrone was hidden amidst packets of salt.

The commissioner then said, “Subsequent examination of more CCTV footage, sustained interrogation of suspects, and threads obtained technical analysis led us to the factory in Kurkumbh. CCTV footage from the factory and surrounding areas, and information about the movement of vehicles revealed the destination of drugs as Delhi. As we intercepted the driver of the truck bound for Delhi, we found out the exact delivery destination in Delhi. Swiftness in operation made sure that the racketeers did not time-shift their consignments. Within the first 48 hours, we had conducted our major strikes at most of the locations that we had zeroed in on. Multiple teams were quickly delegated their tasks. All the teams were dispatched to outstation locations moved by flights. For two or three days in a row, the crime branch teams did not get sleep. It has been a commendable effort by our officers and personnel which has drawn appreciation from the government.”

From all the Pune searches, close to 720 kilogram of mephedrone was seized. Searches in Delhi led to the seizure of 970 gram of mephedrone and the remaining amount has been found in Sangli, officials said.