The arrest of Lalit Patil, an accused in the seizure of mephedrone worth nearly Rs 300 crore, will soon be followed by a “major revelation” over his drug nexus in Maharashtra, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said.
The senior BJP leader was speaking to reporters in Pune after the Mumbai police said they had arrested Patil near Bengaluru. With his arrest, a huge drug nexus will be unearthed, he claimed.
“A major revelation will soon come out in connection with Lalit Patil and his drug nexus in the state. Those who are currently loosely talking about the state’s affairs will be shut completely,” he said.
Patil, an inmate of the Yerawada Jail in Pune, was apprehended on Tuesday night by a team of Mumbai’s Sakinaka police, an official said earlier. “A Mumbai police team nabbed Lalit Patil from a hotel between Bengaluru and Chennai,” he said. Patil escaped from the government-run Sassoon General Hospital in Pune on October 2 when he was taken for an X-ray.
Asked about his escape from the hospital, Fadnavis, who is also the state’s home minister, said, “No one will be spared. The inquiry into this matter is going on. All those who made a mistake will face action.” Nine policemen were suspended after Patil’s escape from the hospital.
Patil was wanted in a multi-crore mephedrone seizure case, busted by the Sakinaka police after raiding a factory in Nashik, the official said.
He is the 15th accused arrested in this case, he said.
The Mumbai police on October 6 said they had seized 151 kg of mephedrone worth Rs 300 crore and arrested various persons from different cities in an operation that the last two months, including the raid at a drug manufacturing unit in Nashik. Following arrest, Patil was on Wednesday produced before a magistrate court in Andheri which remanded him in police custody till October 23. The police sought Patil’s custody saying the accused arrested earlier in the case had revealed his name. Patil was arrested based on suspicious call data records that the police recovered and further probe was required into it, they said.
On September 30, the Pune city police arrested a man from outside the Sassoon General Hospital with mephedrone worth Rs 2 crore.
A probe led to the arrest of a hospital canteen staffer who revealed the contraband was supplied by Lalit Patil, the Yerawada Jail inmate admitted to the hospital at the time. Patil, however, escaped from the hospital on October 2 when he was being taken for an X-ray, leading to the suspension of nine police personnel.
On October 10, the Pune police arrested Lalit Patil’s brother Bhushan Patil and his associate Abhishek Balkawade from the Nepal border in Uttar Pradesh in the mephedrone seizure case, officials earlier said.
The Maharashtra government had set up a four-member committee to conduct an inquiry into the escape of Lalit Patil from the hospital.
