Udaipur: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has arrested a Vadodara-based businessman and exporter Sanjay Patel in the mega drug seizure done on October 28 last year.Patel, who was produced before the special NDPS court here on Monday, was sent to judicial custody till March 1. This is the seventh arrest in the case and all the accused have been lodged in the Udaipur jail.On October 28, the DRI, narcotics department and the Border Security Force (BSF) had carried out a joint action and raided a pharmaceutical unit and its two godowns in Udaipur and Rajsamand.They had seized 23,320 kg of methaqualone tablets, commonly known as mandrax worth nearly Rs 3,000 crore. It is a banned substance under schedule 1 of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.The DRI had claimed it to be the largest ever confiscated stock of the contraband drug anywhere in the world. The factory belongs to the mastermind Subhash Dudani who is also a Bollywood producer. DRI suspects many more persons to be involved in the drug haul.On February 17, DRI had raided the premises of Redimix Adhesive Technology, a firm in Nadiad in Gujarat and summoned its owner Sanjay Patel to record his statements. Patel was interrogated in Jaipur and he reportedly confessed to his role in the manufacture and export of the banned drug. "mandrax had been exported in containers from Patel's factory. Since the DRI didn't ask for his custody, the court sent him to judicial custody," Pravin Khandelwal, the special public prosecutor told TOI.Six persons including Doodhani, his nephews Ravi and Nirmal Doodhani, investor Parmeshwar Vyas, chemist Atul Mhatre and former partner Anil Malkani have been arrested so far in the case.

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