Pune Police File Chargesheet Against Drugs Kingpin Lalit Patil and Associates

Pune, 16th March 2024: On Friday, Pune police filed a comprehensive chargesheet against Lalit Patil, a notorious drugs kingpin, and 13 accomplices, including a woman, in connection with the seizure of mephedrone valued at Rs 2.14 crore on October 1, 2023, at the Sassoon General Hospital gate.

Amitesh Kumar, Pune’s Commissioner of Police (CP), asserted, “We have amassed substantial evidence in the case and have submitted a robust chargesheet against the accused. We are committed to expediting the trial and will request the appointment of a special public prosecutor to present our case effectively. The investigation into all 14 accused has concluded, and any loose ends will be addressed promptly to bolster our case.”

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sunil Tambe lodged the chargesheet before Special Judge V R Kachare.

Lalit Patil, previously arrested by Pimpri Chinchwad police in October 2020 for a Rs 20-crore mephedrone (MD) drug haul, had been incarcerated in Pune’s Yerawada central jail. In June 2023, he was transferred to Sassoon General Hospital for treatment of tuberculosis, hernia, and other ailments. Patil absconded from the hospital on October 2, 2023, a day after the mephedrone seizure at the hospital gate, only to be apprehended 17 days later.

On November 3, 2023, Pune police invoked the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against Patil and 13 others, designating Patil and Arvind Lohare as the main accused.

Among those arrested were Subhash Mandal, intercepted with the drug parcel at Sassoon hospital gate; Rauf Shaikh, a hospital canteen employee who retrieved the parcel from Patil and handed it to Mandal; Patil’s brother, Bhushan, overseeing the Nashik mephedrone unit from where the parcel originated; and Abhishek Balkawade, responsible for delivering the parcel to Patil at the hospital. Aides Pradnya Kamble, Rehan Shaikh alias Golu, Zeeshan Shaikh, Shivaji Shinde, Rahul Pandit alias Rohit Kumar Chaudhary, Harishchandra Pant, and Samadhan Kamble were also detained for their involvement in the drug racket.