Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: A NDPS court on Monday sent the Rs160 crore MD drug haul case accused to judicial custody. Directorate of revenue intelligence teams had arrested Saurabh Gondhalekar after conducting raids on a private pharmaceutical company and seized 107 litre of liquid mephedrone on Sunday. The warehouse manager of Apex Medichem Pvt Ltd, Shekhar Pagar was also arrested by the DRI.We do not require or intend to take the accused into our custody and hence requested court to grant judicial custody while reserving the right to seek custody as and when the investigation demands, a senior DRI officer told TOI.According to the officer, the seized contraband is 95% pure and attracts great demand in illicit markets across India and even abroad.Another DRI officer said the team was in currently checking from where raw materials were sourced to prepare liquid mephedrone. Search of two factory premises of a company named M/s Apex Medichem Pvt. Ltd. resulted in the recovery of about 107 litres of liquid Mephedrone. Illicit market value of these narcotics drugs and psychotropic substances has been reported to be approximately Rs.160 crore. All the recovered substances have been seized under the relevant provisions of the NDPS Act, 1985, an official release from the DRI stated on Sunday.The seizure comes within nine days of the DRIs Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune teams along with Ahmedabad crime branch carrying out joint operation and seizing large amount of narcotics including mephedrone, ketamine and cocaine worth over Rs 250 crore from different places in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, and arrested Jitesh Hinhoriya, considered to be the mastermind of this racket, and his assistant Sandeep Kumawat. We also published the following articles recentlyDRI seizes 107 litres mephedrone worth Rs 160cr; 2 held from Sambhajinagar firmThe Pune regional unit of the Directorate Revenue of Intelligence (DRI) has seized 107 liters of liquid mephedrone worth Rs 160 crore from a pharma company in Pune. The director and manager of the company have been arrested. The seizure was made during a search of two factory premises of the company, named M/s Apex Medichem Pvt. Ltd. This raid comes just nine days after a joint operation by the DRI and the Ahmedabad crime branch in which narcotics worth more than Rs 250 crore were seized.107 litre liquid mephedrone worth Rs 160 crore seized; 2 arrestedThe Pune regional unit of the directorate revenue of intelligence (DRI) has seized 107 liters of liquid mephedrone, worth Rs 160 crore, from a pharma company. The director and manager of the company have been arrested. This seizure comes just nine days after a joint operation by DRI teams in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar resulted in the seizure of narcotics worth more than Rs 250 crore. The pharma company had hidden the liquid mephedrone during a previous raid but was discovered during a subsequent search. The company specializes in the production of corticosteroids, vitamins, and other APIs.Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar among top 3 MD drug suppliers: Gujarat copsAn ongoing investigation by the Ahmedabad crime branch has identified Maharashtras Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district as one of the top three major suppliers of the drug mephedrone in India. The other two locations are Pratapgarh in Madhya Pradesh and Sanchore in Rajasthan. The investigation led to the discovery of large-scale manufacturing of the drug in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. Two individuals, Jiteshkumar Hinhoriya and Sandeep Kumawat, were arrested and drugs worth Rs 250 crore were seized. The crackdown on narcotics in Gujarat has resulted in 15 cases being registered within 45 days.

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