Police arrest BSc dropout who oversaw MD production for drug lord Patil

Harish Pant, a 27-year-old dropout, was arrested for overseeing the production of Mephedrone at a drug kingpin's factory in Mumbai. He is the 18th person arrested in the case. Pant has a history of involvement in drug production and was previously arrested by the Nashik and Pune police. The police have been able to uncover the supply network of the syndicate but have not made progress in uncovering the money trail.

Mumbai: Harish Pant, a 27-year-old BSc Chemistry dropout who allegedly oversaw the production of Mephedrone or MD at drug kingpin Lalit Patil’s factory was arrested by the Sakinaka police on Thursday night.

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Pant, the eighteenth person to be arrested in the case, was hiding in Dehradun for ten days prior to his arrest. He was brought to the city on Thursday night and produced in court on Friday morning, following which he and all other 17 accused persons were remanded in police custody till October 30.

“Pant has been involved in mephedrone production since he was a first-year student in 2016. He was previously arrested by the Nashik and the Pune police in 2018 and 2020, respectively under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act,” said a highly placed source.

Pant’s name was found in a diary seized by police from the house of fellow accused Shivaji Shinde, who was arrested on October 15.

“Shinde was closely involved in day-to-day work at the manufacturing unit near Nashik as well as the distribution of drugs to suppliers in various cities. We found several names in the diary recovered from his house and are now apprehending all the people in their syndicate,” said an officer from the Sakinaka police station.

Amir Sheikh, whose name was also mentioned in the diary recovered from Shinde’s house, was arrested from Mumbai a day prior to Pant’s arrest.

Police also recovered the rent agreement of the factory near Nashik wherein mephedrone was being manufactured from Shinde’s house.

“The agreement pertains to a so-called pharmaceutical plant. It names a Yadav as the owner, and a Kamble as the tenant. But the rent of the factory was paid from Bhushan Patil’s personal account,” said the officer. Bhushan Patil is Lalit Patil’s brother and one of the 18 accused persons who have been arrested.

The Sakinaka police began a probe into the drug syndicate in August this year after they found a local peddler with a paltry amount of mephedrone. They seized more than 150 kgs of MD worth over ₹300 crore over the next two months and found out about the factory in Nashik earlier this month. The police have also been able to identify the supply network of syndicate within the city, especially in south Mumbai, where it has a huge presence.

Despite the recent arrests, the police have not made much headway in uncovering the money trail from the operations of the syndicate. For instance, Patil was hospitalised and under treatment for six months in the recent past, and his all his medical bills were paid in cash. Police suspect the transactions were routed through hawala accounts, but no further information is available.