E-Paper
Pune police bust inter-state MD racket, arrest 6, seize drugs worth ₹4.27cr
Official said that the operation, which was ongoing till February 15, had begun on February 3, soon after a police patrol intercepted two suspects near EON Phase-2 in Kharadi
Pune police have busted an inter-state mephedrone (MD) trafficking racket with links extending to Rajasthan, and seized drugs and related assets worth ₹4.27 crore and arrested six persons till date.
Deputy commissioner of police (Zone IV) Somay Munde said on Monday that the operation, which was ongoing till February 15, had begun on February 3, soon after a police patrol intercepted two suspects near EON Phase-2 in Kharadi in the wee hours and seized 27 grams of mephedrone from them.
The arrested accused were identified as Motisingh Shravan Singh Rajpurohit and Harish Sujana Ramdevasi, both natives of Rajasthan. During their interrogation, police learned that they had been supplying MD in Pune for nearly a year.
An offence under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act was registered at the Kharadi police station and a special team was formed to probe the inter-state nexus.
On February 7, the team arrested Yogesh alias Manish Baburam Bishnoi from Wagholi and recovered 151 grams of MD worth ₹30.20 lakh from him.
His interrogation led to the arrest of Sachin alias S K Rameshkumar Bishnoi, from whom ₹4.65 lakh in cash was seized. In another operation at Manjari Budruk, police detained Amit Sunil Ghule and seized 398 grams of MD from him.
After establishing the trail to Rajasthan, special teams were dispatched to Balotra in that state, from where the main supplier, Ratanlal Kishnaram Jath, was apprehended. Police seized 1,384 grams of MD worth ₹2.76 crore from his possession. Another accused, Ramkaran Jat alias Chaudhary alias Siyag, was also taken into custody.
In the series of raids across Pune and in Rajasthan, police seized a total of 1.960 kg of mephedrone from the accused.
Assistant inspector Ravindra Godse of Kharadi police station said that more arrests are likely and more financial links will emerge in the coming days.
