The Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) of the Mumbai Police has arrested a chemical factory owner in a Mephedrone (MD) manufacturing case. The ANC arrested Jinendra Vora, 54, and took his custody for ten days. This is the eighth arrest in the Rs 2,500 crore MD manufacturing case.
Vora is the owner of Namau Chemicals. His accomplice Kiran Pawar is already in police custody. According to the police, they had visited the factory before arresting him and spoke to workers who confirmed that they were being made to work on MD synthesis.
Deputy commissioner of police, Dutta Nalawade said, “Another accused who was arrested in the case, Prem Prakash Singh had revealed Vora's name during investigation. Vora has been under the scanner since. Singh had manufactured MD at Vora's unit four times in 2020 and paid him Rs 35 lakh. We had called him for investigation on September 10 and arrested him thereafter.”
The Worli unit of ANC arrested Shamsulla Obedullah Khan on March 29 and 250 gm of MD was seized from him. Thereafter, Ayub Shaikh was nabbed and 750 gm of the contraband was seized. The police later arrested Reshma Chandan, Riyaz Memon and Prem Prakash Singh. A total of 701 kg MD worth Rs 1,403 crore was seized from Singh.
While investigating Singh, the police learnt that the drug which was found with him was made in a factory at the GIDC complex at Panoli in Ankleshwar (Gujarat). Accordingly, the police had raided a company on August 13 and seized 513 kg of MD worth Rs 1,026 crore, along with 812 kg of white powder and 397 chemicals used to make MD.
So far, eight people have been arrested in the case, including a woman and a couple of qualified chemists who allegedly prepared the mixtures of various chemicals to manufacture the final drugs. The sustained interrogation of the arrested accused led to the arrest of the seventh person – Giriraj Dikshit – allegedly involved in the syndicate, leading to another major drug haul that was seized on August 16.
