Pune: ACP Sunil Tambe Takes Charge Of Lalit Patil Case

The Pune police have mobilised ten special teams to track down the fugitive drug smuggler, Lalit Patil, who managed to escape from Sassoon Hospital. The investigation into this high-profile case has been entrusted to Assistant Commissioner of Police Sunil Tambe from the Crime Branch.

This comes days after the Maharashtra government set up a four-member committee to conduct an inquiry into the escape of drug case accused Lalit Patil from the Sassoon General Hospital in Pune.

The committee will be headed by Dr Dilip Mhaisekar, director of the Directorate of Medical Education and Research, as per a government notification.

On September 30, the Pune police arrested a man from outside the government-run Sassoon Hospital with mephedrone worth Rs 2 crore.

9 cops were suspended

A probe led to the arrest of a hospital canteen staffer who disclosed that the contraband was supplied by Lalit Patil, a Yerawada Jail inmate admitted in the hospital at the time, officials earlier said.

Patil, however, escaped from the hospital on October 2 when he was being taken for X-ray imaging, leading to the suspension of nine police personnel.

The probe indicated that Patil, arrested in a drug case last year, was running his drug racket from the hospital.

On Tuesday, the Pune police arrested Lalit Patil's brother Bhushan Patil and his associate Abhishek Balkawade from the Nepal border in Uttar Pradesh in the mephedrone seizure case, officials said.