Solapur MD factory bust: Gawli brothers’ police custody extended to Oct 23

According to the police, during the investigation, they unearthed that the racket had spread beyond the state boundaries and that they are looking for a third suspect who is believed to be the financier of the racket and suspected to be hiding in Hyderabad

Mumbai: A city court on Thursday extended the police custody remand of siblings Atul Gawli and Rahul Gawli, who were arrested for allegedly cooking Mephedrone at a factory in Solapur, to October 23.

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According to the police, during the investigation, they unearthed that the racket had spread beyond the state boundaries and that they are looking for a third suspect who is believed to be the financier of the racket and suspected to be hiding in Hyderabad.

The crime branch’s unit 9 busted the MD manufacturing unit in Solapur last week and seized eight kilograms of the synthetic stimulant and 60 kilograms of the raw material required to manufacture the contraband. The police claimed that the value of the seized contraband is around ₹116 crore.

“Several police teams were formed after the Gawli brothers revealed the identity of the peddlers who used to buy from them. All the drug peddlers who operated in the western suburbs have fled. But, we will soon nab them,” an officer from the investigation team said.

Gawli brothers are residents of Solapur and were arrested in Khar on October 15. During their interrogation, the duo revealed that they had manufactured the synthetic drugs themselves at Chincholi MIDC in Solapur. A police team went to Solapur and found three kgs of MD and 60 kilograms of raw materials like methylene, propane, acetic acid and bromine used for manufacturing the synthetic stimulant.

Both brothers are SSC dropouts and have worked in chemical factories in the past. They got the idea of manufacturing MD while working in the companies. Thereafter, they rented a 21,000 square feet plant, paying ₹30,000 rent per month. They even made three laboratories and used to manufacture and sell the manufactured MD themselves. They had hired only three watchmen, however, none of them had any idea what they were doing in the laboratory. They told people that they were manufacturing chemicals.