Pune: A sessions court at Khed in rural Pune will begin the Chakan drugs seizure case trial from Oct 22 against 20 of the 22 accused, including a Nigerian national, four years after the seizure of mephedrone (MD) worth Rs20 crore on Oct 7, 2020. Earlier this month, the court framed charges against the 20 accused. The remaining two accused — drug kingpin Lalit Patil and his aide Arvind Lohare — would be tried separately later before a special court as they were named in a Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) case, an order issued by additional sessions judge A A Ghaniwale of the Khed court stated.
Section 10 of the MCOCA gives precedence to a special court over the trial of any other case against the accused in any other court, which is not a special court. Lohare, a postgraduate in organic chemistry, has been accused of securing hefty fees to train other accused in manufacturing mephedrone. The accused were using a defunct biotech plant, belonging to one of them, in Ranjangaon to manufacture mephedrone, police said.
The 20 accused have been charged under different sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and the Indian Penal Code. "We have submitted our witness list to the court and have issued a notice to the defence to either admit or deny our documents," special public prosecutor Shishir Hiray told TOI on Friday. HC grants bail to 8 accused The Bombay high court (HC) on Oct 14 granted bail to eight of the accused in the case.
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