Pune: Government Sets Up Committee To Probe Escape Of Lalit Patil From Sassoon Hospital

The Maharashtra government has set up a four-member committee to conduct an inquiry into the escape of Lalit Patil, a drug case accused, from the Sassoon General Hospital here.

The committee will be headed by Dr Dilip Mhaisekar, director of the Directorate of Medical Education and Research.

Its other members will be Dr Sudhir Deshmukh, dean of the Government Medical College, Solapur; Dr Hemant Godbole, professor of Government Medical College in Nanded, and Dr Eknath Pawar, professor of Grant Medical College, Mumbai.

Mephedrone bust case

On September 30, the city police arrested a man from outside the government-run Sassoon Hospital with mephedrone worth Rs 2 crore. Probe led to the arrest of a hospital canteen staffer who disclosed that the contraband was supplied by Lalit Patil, a Yerwada Jail inmate admitted in the hospital at the time.

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.

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

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