Top Pune-based drug boss Lalit Patil arrested from Chennai after two-week hunt

It started with the arrest of a peddler caught with mephedrone (MD), a stimulant, two months ago, which then led Mumbai’s Sakinaka police to the factory in Nashik

Mumbai: A fortnight after he fled from the Sassoon General hospital in Pune, the Mumbai police on Monday apprehended Pune-based suspected drug mafia Lalit Patil in connection with a Mephedrone manufacturing unit in Nashik that was busted recently.

(Representative photo)

Police officers said that they tracked Patil to Chennai and arrested him from a hotel with the help of the local police. The officers added that he is being brought to the city and is likely to be produced before a court here on Wednesday.

With Patil’s arrest, and the inter-state probe that preceded it, police have busted a gang of drug makers and sellers who sold contraband after manufacturing it in a factory camouflaged as a pharmaceutical unit.

It all started with the arrest of a peddler with a paltry amount of mephedrone (MD), a stimulant, two months ago, which then led Mumbai’s Sakinaka police to the factory in Nashik : As it turned, workers at the factory were manufacturing psychotropic drugs under the garb of a pharmaceutical factory.

The operation was said to be run by brothers - Lalit Patil and Bhushan Patil who were then on the run. The police arrested 12 people in the case and seized over 150 kgs of MD worth over ₹300 crores.

The arrest of the first drug peddler led to a chain of arrests: The peddler first led them to another accused in the case Anwar Afsar Sayyad (42) who supplied drugs to local peddlers. During arrest, he had 10 grams of drugs on him. Sayyad then led them to his suppliers from Dharavi - Javed Khan (27), Asif Sheikh (30) and Iqbal Mohammed Ali (30), and they in turn led the police to three others named Sundar Shaktivel (44), Hasan Sheikh (43) and Ayub Sayyed (32). A total of 110 grams MD was recovered from them.

“These (those arrested) were all a level above the others in the hierarchy of drug peddling. We realised that if we keep going higher among their ranks, we would be able to reach to the very top level,” said one of the investigating officers who asked not to be named.

He added that they have been working for the past two months on this case, travelling between Nashik, Pune and Mumbai, to connect the various links. In fact, a police team also went to Hyderabad to nab the next in line in the hierarchy of the gang, Arif Sheikh (42), who, when arrested, was found with 110 grams of MD, a country made pistol and seven live cartridges.

In the same manner, Nasir Umar Sheikh, alias Chacha (58), who supplied drugs to all the peddlers across south Mumbai was arrested. He was found in possession of 1,250 grams of MD.

Sheikh sourced his supply of drugs from Shilphata, Kalyan residents Rehan and Azhar Ansari who were found to have stored 15 kilos of MD. “These two led us to Zeeshan Sheikh (34) from Nashik Road. When we reached there, we found that a factory by the name of Sri Ganeshay Pharmaceuticals in which the drugs were being manufactured and supplied to peddlers across the state,” said the police officer.

Sources said that the brain behind the operation Lalit Patil, who was found to be running a drug cartel from Pune’s Sassoon Hospital until a few days ago. His brother Bhushan Patil, who was running the gang’s day-to-day work based on Lalit’s instructions, is on the run.