• By Imran Zafar
  • Wed, 04 Oct 2023 09:53 PM (IST)
  • Source:PTI

Nine police personnel were suspended after a drug accused escaped from a state-run hospital in Maharashtra’s Pune on Monday evening. The accused, Lalit Patil, who was in jail for about a year was found to have access to a mobile phone while in hospital and was allegedly peddling drugs even when undergoing treatment. 

Patil escaped while being taken for X-ray imaging in the hospital. Five police personnel have been suspended for lapses in vigilance, while four others have been suspended for allowing the accused to use a mobile phone in the hospital ward.

Police have formed 10 teams to apprehend the accused, who is on the run. The accused is also wanted in connection with another case, in which Subhash Mandal was arrested with two kilograms of mephedrone worth Rs 2 crore. Mandal told police that he got the drugs from Patil through Rauf Shaikh, an employee at the hospital's canteen.

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Mandal, Shaikh and Patil were then booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and Indian Penal Code provisions in a case registered at Bundgarden police station.

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