Pune police invoke MCOCA against Lalit Patil, 13 others in mephedrone cartel case

The police said Lohare, who has an ‘M.SC chemistry’ degree, is a native of UP who later shifted to Mumbai and is known to have worked with several chemical companies before allegedly becoming the ‘leader’ of a drug cartel. Lohare was initially arrested along with Pant in a drug racket case registered at Indira Nagar police station in Nashik. The police said Lohare had trained Harish Chandra Pant in making mephedrone. After being released from jail on bail, they allegedly continued to work with drug racketeers.

Lohare was again arrested along with Lalit Patil and 20 others by the Pimpri Chinchwad police in connection with a massive mephedrone seizure case lodged at Chakan police station in October 2020, under sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. While all arrested accused including in this case were lodged in the Yerwada jail in Pune since then, the police said Lalit Patil often managed to get himself admitted to Sassoon Hospital for ‘treatment’.

Meanwhile, on September 30, the Pune city police arrested Subhash Mandal near Sassoon Hospital. At that time, he was in possession of mephedrone drugs worth Rs 2.14 crore. The probe revealed that Lalit Patil, who was then admitted to ward number 16 of the Sassoon hospital for treatment of ‘hernia’, allegedly supplied the mephedrone to his aide Mandal, through a hospital canteen staffer Rauf Shaikh, 19. Two iPhones worth Rs 1.1 lakh each were seized from Lalit Patil during a search at the hospital ward.

An FIR was lodged against Lalit Patil, Mandal and Shaikh at the Bundgarden police station, under the NDPS Act. While a probe into this case was on, Lalit Patil escaped from the hospital on October 2. A separate offence was lodged against Lalit Patil for escaping custody. The police arrested his brother Bhushan Patil and aide Balkawade in the mephedrone seizure case on October 11.

Meanwhile, while probing another case, the Mumbai police raided the mephedrone factory operated by Bhushan Patil in Nashik. The Mumbai police had also arrested Lalit Patil’s aide Rehan Ansari alias Golu, Jishan Shaikh, Shivaji Shinde, and Rahul Pandit alias Rohitkumar Chowdhary. And in a major action, on October 17, the Mumbai police arrested Lalit Patil from Chennai.

While probing Bhushan Patil and Balkawade, the Pune city police found that the mephedrone factory in Nashik was started as per the planning done by Lohare and Lalit Patil, when they were lodged together in Yerwada jail. So, cops took Lohare’s custody from Yerwada jail for further investigation.

The police probe revealed that the drug racketeers had allegedly set up a mephedrone factory initially at Mahad in Raigad district, and later shifted to the Ranjangaon industrial area in Pune. It was busted by the cops probing the Chakan mephedrone seizure case. The police said Lohare had allegedly held multiple training sessions on mephedrone manufacturing for some drug racketeers at a farmhouse in the Karjat area in 2019. Lohare was known among his aides as ‘doctor’, the police said.

The probe further revealed that as per Lalit Patil’s guidance, his brother
Bhushan Patil and his aide Abhishek Balakawade took the help of wanted accused Harish Pant to set up the mephedrone factory in Shindegaon MIDC in Nashik around December 2022.

The Pune police picked up Lalit Patil, Shivaji Shinde, and Rahul Pandit from a Mumbai jail on October 31. A court remanded all three in the custody of the Pune police till November 7 for probing the drug seizure case lodged at Bundgarden police station. Before that, the Pune police had taken custody of Rehan alias Golu and Jishan Shaikh from Taloja jail in Mumbai, claiming that they were involved in the transport and sale of mephedrone from the Nashik-based factory. Police also arrested lawyer Pradnya Kamble, who is known to be a close friend of Lalit Patil, for allegedly helping him escape from the hospital. She was further arrested in the mephedrone seizure case, suspecting her role in the drug racket.

The investigation officer in this case, Assistant Commissioner of Police Sunil Tambe of the crime branch, submitted a proposal through DCP (Crime) Amol Zende, to invoke the MCOCA against Lalit Patil, Lohare, and 12 other accused. Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ramnath Pokale sanctioned the proposal, stated the press release issued Friday.

Lalit Patil’s escape from hospital

The probe had revealed that after allegedly escaping from the Sassoon Hospital, Lalit Patil easily walked into a plush hotel near Pune railway station. From there, he allegedly escaped in a car.

The police first arrested the car driver Dattatraya Doke. Later, the police arrested Vinay Aranha, 50, a partner in Pune’s Rosary Education Group. The police said Doke worked as a car driver for Aranha, who was lodged in Taloja jail in Mumbai, since his arrest in March this year by the Enforcement
Directorate (ED) in a multi-crore bank fraud case.

The police have alleged that Aranha and Lalit Patil were admitted to the same ward in Sassoon Hospital for treatment. The police alleged that Aranha’s flat was used by Lalit Patil. Also, the police have claimed that after escaping, Lalit Patil used an ATM card belonging to Aranha’s manager Ashwin Kamat to withdraw money.

The police arrested lawyer Pradnya Kamble, Archana Nikam as well as Bhushan Patil and Balkawade in the offence for Lalit Patil’s escape from custody. The police alleged that Kamble, Nikam, and other accused ‘conspired’ for the last ‘two to three months’ and planned Lalit Patil’s escape from custody. The police said that after escaping, Lalit Patil had a meeting with Kamble and Nikam in Nashik on October 4 and October 5, where the women allegedly gave him Rs 25 lakh. The police have told the court that the two women held multiple meetings with Lalit Patil in Pune before his escape.