On Wednesday afternoon, October 7, the Anti-Narcotics Cell of Pimpri-Chinchwad police caught and arrested 5 people involved in the illegal shipment of Mephedrone, a drug also referred to as ‘meow meow’ near Chakan, Pune. The consignment was worth Rs. 20 crores.

The Narcotics department seized the consignment after receiving an anonymous tip-off that suggested a few people would be present at the location for delivering the drugs.

Near Shel Pimpalgaon village on the Chakan Shikarpur road in Pune, a car was seized by the police. On checking the vehicle thoroughly, they received packets containing some white substance, which upon further investigation and drug testing was confirmed to be Mephedrone.

Krishna Prakash- Pimpri Chinchwad Police Commissioner made a statement- “The arrested suspects were produced before a court and have been remanded to police custody for 10 days. As part of the investigation, our effort will be to zero in on the source of the contraband, the intended receivers of the consignment, and the possible racket behind it. The investigation has now been handed over to a team different than the one which conducted the raid.”

He also added that the department has been investigating the possibility of the 5 individuals being involved in an organized racket of drug smuggling. All 5 individuals have been identified as Sanjeev Kumar Bansi Raut, Chetan Fakkad Dandawate, Akshay Kale, Tausif Hasan Mohammad Taslim, and Anandgir Gosavi. Out of these 5, two of them had been working in a pharmaceutical company.

As per the information given by the police, most of the suspects were well-educated. One of them had an MBA degree while another was a computer-science degree holder.

A case has been filed in the drug seizure at the Chakan police station under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, against all 5 individuals.