PIO in London mastermind of Pune MD racket: Top cop

By: Gitesh Shelke & Alim Shaikh

Pune: City police chief Amitesh Kumar on Thursday said a London-based British person of Indian origin (PIO) had been established as the mastermind of the racket behind the Rs3,676 crore mephedrone (MD) seizure from Pune, Delhi and Sangli over the past three days.

The police have arrested another man from Sangli in connection with the MD seizures, taking the arrests to nine, and detained a suspect in Delhi. A Narcotics Control Bureau team reached Pune in the evening and started questioning the men in custody.

"The London-based prime suspect, Sandeep Dhuney, was earlier arrested from Patna in 2016 by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in connection with the seizure of 150kg MD in Pune. Aayub Akbarshah Makandar (48), arrested on Thursday from Sangli, was also held in 2016 along with Dhuney. They had developed friendship with some of the suspects in the current case during their stay in Yerawada central jail," Kumar said.

Dhuney and Makandar had secured their release on bail in the 2016 MD seizure case. "Dhuney was later frequenting London, Mumbai and Pune till June 30 this year, when he crossed the India-Nepal border to reach Kathmandu. He is now suspected to be in London. We have issued a lookout circular for him and also initiated a process for the issuance of a Red Corner Notice against him. The National Investigation Agency and State Anti-Terrorism Squad have been notified about these developments. They are parallely probing the case," the Pune police commissioner said.

Between Monday and Wednesday, the police seized 1,838kg of MD valued at Rs3,676 crore from storage facilities at Vishrantwadi in Pune, Earth Chem Private Limited pharma plant at Kurkumbh in Daund and from New Delhi and Sangli. They have now arrested nine suspects, including plant owner Bhimaji alias Anil Parshuram Sable (45) and chemical expert Yuvraj Baban Bhujbal (41) of Dombivli. Sable and Bhujbal were in touch with Dhuney, who had placed an order for 1,800kg of MD in Oct last year, police said. The police are searching for four to five more men.

In a related development, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has issued a closure notice to the Kurkumbh pharma plant and directed Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited and Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation to snap power and water supply to it for violating terms of environment clearance.

Ravindra Andhale, MPCB Pune regional officer, told TOI, "The company products mentioned in the application for environment clearance were not being manufactured at the factory in violation of consent terms. Besides, it failed to achieve zero liquid discharge, as per the consent condition."

Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) joint commissioner (drugs) S V Pratapwar told TOI, "There was no scope for us to know the company's existence, as none of its products had reached market. The company secured MPCB's permission, a pre-condition to an FDA licence. However, it never applied to us for a licence."

An MPCB official said the nod was for making 25 types of medicines and procuring 128 raw material items.

On Thursday evening, the police produced Sangli man Aayub Makandar, along with Vaibhav alias Pintya Mane (42), Ajay Karosiya (35) and Haider Noor Shaikh (40), all three arrested on Monday, before a city court that ordered their custodial remand till March 2. The four men arrested in New Delhi were being brought to Pune and would be produced in court on Friday.

Police chief Kumar said, "The Patna police, which assisted the DRI in the 2016 action, had arrested Dhuney and his partner, Bipin Pandit. Dhuney was also arrested in cases of abetment of suicide and abduction. We are establishing the quantum of MD Dhuney supplied to London, or other cities. The men held in Delhi were planning to courier a consignment to London. However, they had to wait for the wedding of the son of one of them. This enabled us to make the recovery."