“Police naik Natharam Kale (36) and constable Amit Jadhav (37) were responsible for escorting Patil from the prisoner’s ward no. 16 to another unit for a medical test, when Patil escaped from their custody. Probe revealed that there was negligence on their part in discharging duty,” deputy commissioner of police (Crime) Amol Zende told TOI.
On October 1, the crime branch seized a Rs2.14 crore MD parcel from Patil’s aide, who was stepping out of the hospital. Patil escaped from the hospital the following day.
Arrested cops part of 10 suspended for Lalit’s escape
The two have now been charged under section 223 (escape from confinement or custody negligently suffered by a public servant) of the Indian Penal Code. The police produced them before a magisterial court, which ordered their custody remand until Saturday.
Patil, who was arrested in October 2020 in a Rs20-crore mephedrone (MD) drug haul case at Chakan, was lodged in Yerawada central prison as an undertrial before being shifted to the Sassoon hospital in June for treatment of various ailments.
On October 1, the Pune crime branch seized a Rs2.14 crore MD parcel from Patil’s aide, who was stepping out of the hospital. This raised a row over how Patil was managing his drug racket from the hospital. Patil escaped from Sassoon the following day.
Mumbai’s Sakinaka police rearrested him on October 17 from Channasandra, 100km from Bengaluru, in another drug haul case registered with them on August 8. Pune police secured Patil’s custody on October 31 in the Rs2.14 crore drug haul case. He is in police custody until November 20.
In between, Pune police had arrested Dattatraya Dhoke, who picked up Patil from Ambedkar Road and dropped him at the Kiwale exit point of the expressway in a car, Pradnya Kamble and Archana Nikam – both of whom harbored Patil in Nashik, Patil’s brother Bhushan Patil and his close aide Abhishek Balkawade as well as Dhoke’s employer and Rosary education group partner Vinay Aranha, who was under treatment at the prisoner’s ward, on the charge of assisting and financing Patil’s escape. Kale and Jadhav’s arrest takes the total number of accused in the case to eight.
