Drug kingpin Lalit Patil remanded to Pune's Yerawada central jail again

Drug trafficker Lalit Patil, the primary accused in a ₹300 crore mephedrone seizure case, has been remanded to Yerawada Central Jail by a special court in the city. The court, late on Friday, also remanded Jishan Sheikh, Shivaji Shinde, and Rahul Pandit to judicial custody. Furthermore, the court extended the police custody of Patil's brother Bhushan Patil, along with Harish Pant, Arvind Kumar Lohare, and Ibrahim Shaikh until November 29.

Earlier, invoking the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), the police had applied stringent provisions against Patil and his associates. Patil's arrest took place in Bengaluru on October 17, over two weeks after his dramatic escape from the government-run Sassoon Hospital. It was revealed that a trustee of an educational institute in the city had facilitated his hospital escape, leading to an additional arrest.

The legal proceedings stem from a mephedrone seizure case on September 30 when Pune police apprehended an individual outside Sassoon Hospital, seizing drugs worth Rs 2 crore. Subsequent investigations revealed Patil's alleged involvement, leading to the arrest of a hospital canteen employee who claimed that Patil supplied drugs during his hospital stay. Patil's escape from Sassoon Hospital on October 2, during a scheduled X-ray visit, raised eyebrows and intensified the ongoing investigation. Previously arrested in 2022 in a drug case in Chakan, Pune district, Patil had been housed in Pune's Yerawada prison. His admission to the hospital for the past three months raised suspicions.

Reports indicate that Patil's escape was driven by the fear of a potential life sentence. The court had denied bail in the Chakan drug possession case, and when a second case was registered against him on September 30, Patil reportedly confessed during police interrogation that he fled Sassoon Hospital out of the apprehension of spending the rest of his life in jail. In a timeline of events, on September 30, Pune police seized drugs worth Rs 2 crore from an individual outside Sassoon Hospital. Patil's daring escape from Sassoon Hospital on October 2 during a routine medical visit triggered a citywide manhunt. Eventually, on October 17, Saki Naka police successfully apprehended Patil in Bengaluru, marking a crucial breakthrough in the case.