After the Mumbai Police arrested Lalit Patil in a drug case near Bengaluru on Wednesday, his father's health reportedly took a downturn, with a viral video showing his mother trying to assist him.
Lalit's brother, Bhushan Patil, had been arrested at the Nepal border just a few days earlier.
Lalit escaped from Sassoon Hospital on Oct 2
Lalit Patil, previously an inmate at Pune's Yerawada Jail, was captured on Tuesday night by Mumbai's Sakinaka police team. He had escaped from the Sassoon General Hospital in Pune on October 2 during a medical visit for an X-ray. Patil was a wanted figure in a multi-crore mephedrone seizure case, connected to a raid on a factory in Nashik, which the Sakinaka police had cracked.
He is the 15th individual held in connection with this case. On October 6, Mumbai police had reported a massive 151 kg mephedrone seizure valued at Rs 300 crore, arresting several people from different cities in a two-month operation, including a raid on a drug manufacturing unit in Nashik.
Following his arrest, Lalit Patil was brought before a magistrate court in Andheri on Wednesday, which remanded him in police custody until October 23. The police had sought his custody, pointing out that other suspects arrested earlier had disclosed his involvement. They emphasized that Patil's arrest was based on suspicious call data records that needed further investigation.
Sassoon General Hospital drug bust
In a related incident, on September 30, Pune city police had held individual outside Sassoon General Hospital with mephedrone worth Rs 2 crore. Subsequent investigations led to the arrest of a hospital canteen staff member who revealed that the contraband had been supplied by Lalit Patil, the Yerawada Jail inmate. Unfortunately, Patil managed to escape from the hospital on October 2 during a scheduled X-ray examination, leading to the suspension of nine police personnel.
On October 10, Pune police arrested Lalit Patil's brother, Bhushan Patil, and his associate Abhishek Balkawade at the Nepal border in Uttar Pradesh in connection with the mephedrone seizure case. In response to Patil's escape, the Maharashtra government established a four-member committee to conduct an inquiry into the matter.
