Mumbai Police get 5-day custody of Pune drug don

Mumbai, Oct 18 (IANS) Absconder drug don Lalit Patil, who had fled from Sassoon Hospital in Pune two weeks ago, and was nabbed by a team of Mumbai Police from Bengaluru, was sent to five-day police custody till October 23, here on Wednesday.

Patil was brought to Mumbai early in the day and produced before an Andheri Magistrate Court which granted Mumbai Police his custodial remand, said a lawyer.

The Mumbai Police Prosecutor said that Patil was an accused in the Nashik drugs factory bust in which he was getting raw materials from a Mumbai-based supplier, who has also been arrested.

In order to investigate further into that case, including possible foreign links, other associates and how far the tentacles of the narcotics ring were spread, the Mumbai Police sought his remand.

During the remand hearing, Patil claimed that he had not ‘fled’, but was allegedly ‘abducted’, and that he feared for his life from Pune Police, the lawyer informed mediapersons.

The Mumbai Police had earlier busted his illegal narcotics manufacturing unit in Nashik, and the Pimpri-Chinchwad Police had destroyed his multi-crore rupees MD (mephedrone) racket in October 2020.

At that time, Patil was arrested and had been cooling heels in prison since then. But in June he was admitted to the Sassoon Hospital for treatment of TB and hernia.

On October 2, Patil managed to hoodwink the police and sneaked out of their clutches while being escorted for an X-ray, sparking off a huge political uproar.

The incident attracted sharp criticism from Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sushma Andhare, Congress’ Balasaheb Thorat, Pune Congress MLA Ravindra Dhangar, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) MLC Eknath Khadse and MLA Rohit Pawar, plus others who alleged the involvement of a ruling alliance minister in the drug don’s shock escape from the hospital.

The Opposition demanded a probe into the incident, narco-test of Patil and action against those responsible for his escape from the hospital.

Just three days before he bolted, the Pune Police had nabbed his associate Subhash Mondal, from outside the Sassoon Hospital with a packet of over 1.70 kgs MD worth Rs 2-crore, and it was suspected that Patil had supplied the drugs to him (Mondal) through a canteen boy.

After his sensational vanishing act, Patil mostly travelled by road and allegedly went to Dhule, Aurangabad, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka through his narcotics mafia contacts before the Mumbai Police managed to track and catch him using tech-intel.

After Patil bolted, the Pune Police had his brother Bhushan Patil and an associate Abhishek Balwadkar, on October 10, in its efforts to reach the absconder drug don.