Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday targeted Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray over drug case accused Lalit Patil, a Yerwada Jail inmate who had fled from a Pune hospital after being held in a major mephedrone bust.
Patil was the Nashik chief of the undivided Shiv Sena under Thackeray and was never interrogated by police after he was held in 2020, when the Maha Vikas Aghadi was in power, Fadnavis said at a news conference.
Patil was held in a mephedrone bust outside Sassoon Hospital, where he was admitted, and he escaped from there on October 2 while being taken for an X-ray.
He was later held on Tuesday from a spot near Bengaluru in connection with a Rs 300 crore mephedrone seizure in Nashik and was remanded in police custody till October 23 by a court in Andheri.
“Lalit Patil was arrested on December 10-11, 2020. Uddhav Thackeray was the chief minister when he was arrested. When he was held, PCR (police custody) was sought. The PCR was of 14 days but Patil was immediately admitted in Sassoon Hospital,” Fadnavis said.
“There was no effort from the police to file an application in court (over the fact) that he was not interrogated or that his illness was not true. Why was he not interrogated? Who is responsible, the then chief minister (Thackeray) or home minister (Ani Deshmukh)?” he questioned.
Fadnavis sought to know under whose pressure Patil was and with whom did he have links. Incidentally, the Shiv Sena (UBT) has been targeting Fadnavis, who holds the Home portfolio in the Eknath Shinde government, over Patil escaping from the hospital just days after he was arrested.
As per police, Patil was held after a person was found on September 30 with mephedrone outside Sassoon Hospital. Patil (37) escaped on October 2.
He was admitted in Sassoon Hospital from Yerwada Jail, where he was lodged in connection with a drug case registered in Chakan in Pune in 2022.
Patil was held on Tuesday night by a team of Saki Naka police in Mumbai from a hotel near Bengaluru.
Incidentally, on Thursday, former Shiv Sena MLA from Nashik Yogesh Gholap said Lalit Patil had campaigned for him but added he had no clue of the latter’s business activities. Patil joined the Shiv Sena after being associated with the Republican Party of India many years ago, Gholap had told reporters.
Gholap is now with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
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