Mumbai Police nab fugitive Pune drug don from Chennai

Mumbai, Oct 18 (IANS) The absconder drug don Lalit Patil, who had fled from Sassoon Hospital in Pune two weeks ago, and was on the run through different states, has been nabbed by a team of Mumbai Police from Chennai.

He was arrested late Tuesday and was being brought to Mumbai. The police will seek his remand, before he is taken to Pune, an official said here on Wednesday.

The Mumbai Police had earlier busted his illegal narcotics manufacturing unit in Nashik, and the Pimpri-Chinchwad Police had destroyed his multi-crore rupees MD (mephedrone) racket in October 2020.

Lalit Patil was arrested and then cooling heels in prison since then, but was admitted to the Sassoon Hospital in June for treatment of TB and hernia.

On October 2, sensing an opportunity, Lalit Patil managed to hoodwink the police and sneaked out of their clutches while being escorted for an X-ray, sparking off a huge political uproar.

The incident attracted sharp criticism from Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sushma Andhare, Congress’ Balasaheb Thorat and others who alleged the involvement of a ruling alliance minister in Lalit Patil’s escape.

Just three days before he bolted, the Pune Police had nabbed his associate Subhash Mondal, from outside the Sassoon Hospital with a packet of over 1.70 kgs MD worth Rs 2 crore, and it was suspected that Lalit Patil had supplied the drugs to him (Mondal) through a canteen boy.

After his sensational vanishing act, Lalit Patil mostly travelled by road and allegedly went to Gujarat, then reached Karnataka through his narcotics mafia contacts and from there to Chennai where a Mumbai Police team managed to track and catch him using tech-intel.

In the meantime, the Pune Police had nabbed Lalit Patil’s brother Bhushan Patil and an associate Abhishek Balwadkar, on October 10, in its efforts to reach the absconder drug don.