Chakan drug case accused shared MD formula with Lalit: Police
The court had granted police custody to Abhishek Balkawade and Lalit’s brother Bhushan Patil till Sunday
Pune: The Pune city police probe has revealed that Anil Lohare, an accused in Chakan drug case, has shared the formula of manufacturing synthetic drug mephedrone (MD) with drug kingpin Lalit Patil.
On Friday, the police officials told the court that Lohare, who has a background in chemical engineering, shared the formula to prepare MD drug with Patil. The court had granted police custody to Abhishekh Balkawade and Lalit’s brother Bhushan Patil till Sunday.
Police officials said that they need to interrogate Lohare, who is lodged in jail, for his alleged involvement with Lalit, Bhushan and Balkawade to set up the drug manufacturing factory at Shinde village in Nashik district.
The authorities are working to ascertain the scale of MD production linked to this case.
The Pune police and the Uttar Pradesh special task force (STF) arrested drug dealer Lalit’s brother Bhushan and his associate Balkawade from Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh last Tuesday.
Lalit, an undertrial prisoner serving imprisonment at Yerawada Jail, was admitted to Sassoon General Hospital for treatment of tuberculosis and hernia. However, on October 2, Patil managed to flee from the hospital.
Patil was accused of indulging in illicit narcotics sale and was booked on September 30 following a raid by the anti-narcotics cell in which Patil’s aide, Subhash Janaki Mandal, 29, was arrested for possessing 1.71 kg and 53 milligrams of mephedrone estimated to be worth ₹2.14 crore.
Police said Balkawade alias German is Lalit’s close associate. The phone seized by Pune city police from Lalit had details of calls by the name of German. Police suspect Bhushan and German might have helped Lalit to escape from the Sassoon Hospital. However, police said that after interrogation more names will be revealed who helped Lalit escape.
A team of Pune city police visited Mumbai on Friday to interrogate accused drug dealer Lalit Patil, who is in Mumbai police custody.
An officer from Pune city police said, “Mumbai police arrested Patil in a drug case registered at Sakinaka police station. Our team interrogated him in connection with a drug case registered at Bund Graden police station in Pune city.’’
