Raigad police seize ₹106 crore worth of MD, arrest three in Khopoli

Navi Mumbai: Raigad police arrested three individuals and confiscated Mephedrone (MD Powder) valued at ₹106 crore from a factory in Khopoli, which was started under the pretext of manufacturing electric poles

Navi Mumbai: Raigad police arrested three individuals and confiscated Mephedrone (MD Powder) valued at ₹106 crore from a factory in Khopoli, which was started under the pretext of manufacturing electric poles.

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During a check of the factories in the Khopoli area, two constables Shedge and Patil found that even though the company was named ‘India Electric Poles Manufacturing’, they found usage of chemicals. The men in the factory claimed that they were manufacturing agarbattis and perfumes. “On the agreement papers, there was a mention of manufacturing of Anchal chemical but it was just for name sake,” police inspector Shital Raut from Khopoli police station said.

On checking the documentation and permissions of the factory, it was found that they had no documents available to support the usage of chemicals in the factory. “Our team inspected the found chemicals in the factory with the help of narco inspection kit and the chemical turned out to be Mephedrone (MD Powder),” Raigad superintendent of police Somnath Gharge said.

The raid on the Dheku village-based factory in Khopoli Taluka resulted in the seizure of 85.2 kg of MD powder valued at ₹106.50 crore. Additionally, raw materials worth ₹15.37 lakh and equipment worth ₹65 lakh were confiscated, totaling property worth ₹107.30 crore.

The arrested individuals include Kamal Jeswani, 48, from Thane, Matin Shekh, 45, from Sambhaji Nagar currently residing in Khopoli, and Anthony Kurukuttikaran, 50, from Thane. Investigations suggest the trio had rented the space for the past year, and with the approaching

New Year, they may have been manufacturing the drug in bulk for a larger supply. “The investigations are still in the preliminary stage and we are investigating it further to find to which places were they planning to supply the drugs. Kurukuttikaran is a history-sheeter who was previously arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau and was convicted in a Narcotic Drugs Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act for 10 years. Jeswani too was arrested in a cheating case previously. We have called the owner of the factory to get more details on the agreement they had,” Raigad additional superintendent of police Atul Zende said.

The accused face charges under sections 8(c) (production, manufacturing, possession, selling, purchasing, transporting, using, consuming, importing, exporting any narcotic drug/psychotropic substance), 22(c) (punishment for contravention of psychotropic substances), and 29 (punishment for abetment and criminal conspiracy) of the NDPS Act. They are scheduled to appear in court on Saturday.