Bharuch: The Mumbai Anti Narcotics Cell, Gujarat Police SOG and the crime branch of Bharuch Police on Wednesday busted a Mephedrone - popularly known as MD - manufacturing site near Panoli in the state's Bharuch district, recovering in the process drugs worth Rs 1,383 crore. The raid at Infinity Research and Development Limited at Panoli GIDC comes after a similar raid in Mumbai earlier this month, during which investigators picked up information about the Gujarat-based operations.
Two persons were detained during the raid. While the initial raid was carried out by the Mumbai Anti Narcotics Cell, a later comb throughout the area discovered the illegal material spread across the 30,000 square feet area. While 1,300 litres of Mephedrone was found in liquid form, 83 kg of the drug was seized in a solid form. Apart from the aforementioned, Rs 13.24 lakh worth of chemicals, two mobile phones and other documents were seized by police from the area, Bharuch SP Leena Patil said.
Also read: Gujarat ATS seizes 225 kg MDMA worth over Rs 1000 crore
The owners of the factory have been identified as Chintan Raju Panseria and Jayant Jitendra Tiwari. The facility was set up to produce various chemical and pharmaceutical products for other companies. Tiwari's uncle Giriraj Dixit, meanwhile, was arrested by ANC (Anti Narcotics Cell) officials. Dixit holds an M.Sc. degree in Chemistry. All three accused are learnt to have begun manufacturing psychotropic substances, punishable under provisions of the NDPS Act, since January.
Meanwhile, six more people were detained following the same link, as another under-construction facility in Savli taluka of Vadodara district was raided later in the day by personnel belonging to Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS). Surat-resident Mahesh Vaishnav has been identified as the mastermind of this racket, alongside his Vadodara-based partner Piyush Patel.
