Pune Cops Get Custody Of Drug Racketeer Lalit Patil

Pune: Pune Police investigating the seizure of mephedrone from outside the Sassoon General Hospital here have received the custody of suspected drug racketeer Lalit Patil from a Mumbai court, an officer said on Tuesday.

"We have received the custody of Lalit Patil from a court in Mumbai. We will produce him in a court in Pune on Wednesday in a case related to the seizure of mephedrone from outside the Sassoon General Hospital," the Pune crime branch officer said.

Police have arrested 11 people so far in this connection.

Patil, the main accused in a Rs 300 crore mephedrone seizure case, was arrested in Bengaluru on October 17, more than two weeks after he escaped from the government-run Sassoon hospital in Pune.

A trustee of an education institute in Pune was arrested for facilitating his escape from the hospital.

Pune Police on September 30 arrested a man from outside the Sassoon hospital and seized mephedrone worth Rs 2 crore from him. The probe led to the arrest of a hospital canteen employee who claimed that the drugs were supplied by Patil, who was admitted to the hospital.

As per Pune police, Patil escaped from the government-run facility on October 2 when he was taken for X-ray imaging. Arrested in 2022 in a drug case at Chakan in Pune district, he was lodged in Pune's Yerawada prison and admitted to the hospital for the last three months.

The Sakinaka police in Mumbai on October 6 said that they had seized 151 kg of mephedrone worth Rs 300 crore and arrested several persons from different cities during an operation that lasted two months. A drug manufacturing unit located in Nashik district was also busted during the probe.