TWO days after a video clip surfaced exhibiting two individuals allegedly consuming medicine in a pub on Fergusson School Street, Pune police arrested two suspects — an architect from Mumbai and an IT skilled from Pune — who the police say might be seen within the video. Police have now launched a probe into the supply of medication and its provide chain.
Police additionally stated the 2 suspects —Nitin Nathuram Thombre (34) of Mumbai and Karan Rajendra Mishra (34) of Pune —have confessed to having consumed a stimulant drug (suspected to be Mephedrone) at Liquid Leisure Lounge pub. The 2 had been remanded to police custody until June 29 after they had been produced earlier than courtroom in Pune on Tuesday.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Sandeep Singh Gill stated, “Thombre, an architect, was arrested from Mumbai and Mishra, an IT skilled, who was arrested from Pune. They’re the 2 individuals who might be seen within the video.”
On Monday, a day after the Liquid Leisure Lounge pub was discovered working previous the stipulated time restrict, 14 individuals had been arrested—eight by the Pune metropolis police and 6 extra by the excise division—on prices of alleged unlawful operations together with organising an unlawful social gathering which was attended by dozens of individuals.
Police had additionally collected samples from some spots within the pub to determine the medicine consumed on the premises. The pub was sealed by the State Excise Division on Sunday for violations of a number of norms associated to serving liquor.
“Thombre and Mishra are the 2 seen within the visuals consuming a powdered substance which we imagine had been medicine. The visuals are from the washroom of the pub and the 2 are seen consuming the narcotic substances after inserting them over the lid of the bathroom seat. The 2 have confessed to the act. We are actually probing the supply of the medicine they procured and its provide chain,” stated an officer who’s a part of the probe.
The police stated additional, “The 2 confessed that the drug was an artificial stimulant Mephedrone. We’re ascertaining this facet and investigating if others too consumed medicine on the pub that night time. We now have began figuring out and questioning those that attended the social gathering for which invitations had been despatched on social media and the telephone messaging teams that had been shaped for this function. We now have additionally come to know that some who attended the social gathering at Liquid Leisure Lounge had been earlier at one other social gathering at Hadapsar pub. After the Hadapsar pub closed for the night time, they had been informed in regards to the social gathering at Liquid Leisure Lounge and they also got here right here.
“The crackdown by the police and state Excise division was prompted after movies of alleged drug use on the pub and in addition that of the institution working well beyond time restrict had been circulated on social media. It later got here to gentle the pub was open until 5 am on Sunday as in opposition to the time restrict of 1.30 am. 4 cops—a police inspector and an assistant inspector who had been on the night time spherical, and constables who had been patrolling in Shivajinagar police jurisdiction —had been suspended for dereliction of duties.
Mephedrone, often known as Meow Meow or Whereas Magic is a synthetically manufactured stimulant of the amphetamine and cathinone class. Until early 2010s, the drug was not included within the listing of contrabands below Narcotics Medicine and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. However after a number of seizures of enormous portions of the drug and rising situations of its consumption as narcotic in massive cities, prompted authorities to incorporate it within the listing in 2015.
Earlier drug seizures
In February 2024, Pune Metropolis police’s Crime Department had seized round 1,836 kg of mephedrone value round Rs 3,672 crore in a number of raids at a chemical manufacturing manufacturing facility in Daund taluka, two godowns in Pune’s Vishrantwadi, some outlets in South Extension in New Delhi and a few extra locations in Sangli district. The probe unearthed a complicated manufacturing line for the artificial stimulant, being run from a chemical manufacturing facility guised as a pharmaceutical unit at an industrial cluster in Kurkumbh in Daund. Along with these medicine being despatched to main cities throughout the nation, massive portions had been additionally smuggled to London in ready-to-eat meals packets shipped by a courier company in Delhi, a probe had revealed.
Late on Tuesday night time the Pune police registered yet another offence in opposition to the Liquid Leisure Lounge below the Maharashtra Regional and City Planning Act for unlawful building and use of the house to run the enterprise.
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