A fortnight after Pune-based suspected drug mafia Lalit Patil escaped from a hospital in Pune, the Mumbai Police arrested Patil near Chennai and brought him to Mumbai for further investigation on Wednesday. The arrest has been made in connection with a Mephedrone manufacturing unit in Nashik that was busted recently. Mumbai police started its search operation for Patil after a case was registered at the Saki Naka police station in August and based on the inputs, huge quantity of drugs were recovered from Dongri and Pune.
"Mumbai police started its action against drugs in August when a case was registered in Saki Naka... We have carried out the raid in Dongri, Pune and other places... The quantity of drugs recovered is more than 150 kgs which costs more than Rs 300 crores... Our detection team has continuously worked on it... We arrested him in a place between Bengaluru and Chennai. Today we brought him to Mumbai and took him in police custody... Today we have arrested only one accused... Our investigation about this accused is at an initial stage," Joint CP (Law and Order) Mumbai Police Satya Narayan Chaudhari was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
The arrest was a collective effort of the Pune and Mumbai Police departments.
Lalit Patil was being held at Yerawada jail since 2020 for drug possession but after he developed some health complications he was transferred to ward number 16 of Sassoon Hospital in Pune. On October 2 he fled from the hospital while being taken to an X-ray testing appointment. His escape prompted deployment of several search teams of both the pune and Mumbai Police.
So far, the police have arrested four major drug traffickers in connection with the case. Lalit Patil’s brother Bhushan Patil, also an accused in the case was arrested by the police from the Nepal border, a week ago.