Cops seize MD worth ₹ 2.53 cr ahead of New Year festivities
According to the cops, the drug was to be delivered to the farmhouse belonging to high-profile people in Panvel
Navi Mumbai What could have been a mega night at high-profile parties was busted by unit 3 of the Crime Branch of Navi Mumbai, with the arrest of three persons who were trying to sell MD (methaqualone powder) to organisers of New Year parties.
According to the police source, the drug was to be delivered to the farmhouse belonging to high-profile people in Panvel. MD drugs weighing 2.5 kg worth ₹2.53 crore was seized by the accused. Police Commissioner Bipin Kumar Singh informed the media on Friday that the police also raided the factory in Poynad, which was started by the accused to make MD. The factory was then sealed by the police.
Among those arrested in the operation, Kalim Rafiq Khamkar (39), Zaki Afroz Pittu (33) and Subhash Raghupati Patil (40) have been identified. Senior police inspector Shatrughn Mali of unit 3 had received information about an accused coming to Nere village of Panvel to deliver drugs on Thursday evening. Crime branch unit 3, Anti-Narcotics Cell and Human Trafficking Cell jointly set a trap and arrested Khamkar. The police found MD powder weighing 1.1 kg in a plastic bag in his car and hence seized the car and the drugs and also arrested him.
He was later interrogated by the police, who informed that he had started a factory in Poynad area of Alibag Taluka in Raigad with the help of two other accomplices to manufacture MD powder. On the basis of this information, the police raided the factory at Poynad and found MD powder weighing 500 grams each in the possession of Pittu and Patil. Also, 500 grams of MD powder was found in the dryer machine of the factory. Therefore, the police confiscated the MD powder as well as the machinery used for making the drug and sealed the factory.
“The accused Patil, who was arrested in the case, had studied BSc Chemistry and was working in a chemical company. It was there that he learned about making drugs. Investigations have revealed that he started an MD powder factory at Poynad with the help of his accomplices, around two months ago after he quit his job at a chemical company a year and a half ago,” Mali said. “This is the first time that a factory manufacturing MD drugs has been seized that too just before the New Year eve,” Singh said.