Chief Medical Officer treating alleged Sassoon General Hospital drug racket suspect arrested

Pune: The Pune police on Monday arrested the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Yerawada Central Jail in connection with the case of drug racketeer Lalit Patil's escape from a government-run hospital here, an official said.

Dr Sanjay Kashinath Marsale, the CMO of Yerawada Central Jail, has been arrested under section 223 (escape from confinement or custody negligently suffered by public servant) and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the official said.

Patil, who was wanted in a multi-crore mephedrone seizure case, escaped from the government-run Sassoon General Hospital in Pune on October 2 when he was taken for an X-ray.

“Interrogation of one of the accused revealed that Marsale had gone out of the way to shift Patil from the jail to Sassoon General Hospital on the pretext of treatment. We have arrested him, and more facts will come to the fore after his questioning,” a senior crime branch officer said.

He said as many as 12 people have been arrested in connection with the case so far.

The Pune city police had on September 30 arrested a man from outside the Sassoon General Hospital with mephedrone worth Rs 2 crore.

A probe led to the arrest of a hospital canteen staffer who revealed the contraband was supplied by Patil, the jail inmate admitted at the hospital at the time.

Patil, however, escaped from the hospital on October 2, leading to the suspension of nine police personnel.

Patil was wanted in connection with the seizure of mephedrone worth Rs 300 crore in a two-month-long operation, which included a raid at a drug manufacturing unit in Nashik.