Two held near Pune station, Meow Meow worth Rs 17 lakh recovered from their possession

The two suspects have been identified as Saleem Mubarak Shaikh (38), who is a rickshaw driver as well as a street hawker, and his friend Vijay Dedwalkar (33), who used to work for a private company earlier. Police have recovered 104.4 grams of Mephedrone from Shaikh’s possession and 10 grams from Dedwalkar. The total value of seized Meow Meow from the duo is over Rs 17 lakh, officials said.

Senior Inspector Vinayak Gaikwad, who led the team that made the arrest, said, “Primary probe suggests that the one of the suspects had brought the contraband from Mumbai. We are now probing who their possible customers were.”

The two were produced before the court and have been remanded to police custody till December 24.

Mephedrone, also known as Meow Meow or White Magic, is a synthetically manufactured stimulant of the amphetamine and cathinone category. Till early 2010s, the drug was not included in the list of contraband under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act. But multiple seizures of large quantities of the drug and rising instances of its consumption as narcotic in large cities prompted authorities to include it in the list in 2015.