The brief political career of a drug operative that’s now haunting Shiv Sena
On Friday, Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had claimed that Lalit Patil had been a member of the Shiv Sena when it was still undivided Maharish Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis claimed that Lalit Patil, who sparked a massive manhunt after he escaped from Pune’s Sassoon Hospital while in police custody, had been a member of the Shiv Sena when it was still undivided. Patil was arrested in December 2020 and had a hotline to some of the party seniors. He had joined the party in 2016 and began participating in party meetings and hobnobbed regularly with senior party leaders. Despite this, Patil's political career began around a decade ago when he joined as a small-time functionary of the Republican Party of India (RPI). His ambitions included a party ticket to contest local body elections and a potential entry into the government as a junior minister.
Published : 2 years ago by Yogesh Joshi, Shrinivas Deshpande in Politics
On Friday, Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had claimed that Patil who sparked a massive manhunt after he escaped from Pune’s Sassoon Hospital while in police custody on October 2, had been a member of the Shiv Sena when it was still undivided. Fadnavis claimed that Patil had headed the Sena’s Nashik unit and that he had been shielded by the party which was then in power, when his gang was busted. “The allegations levelled by Fadnavis that Lalit Patil was our party’s Nashik unit president is like saying that Dawood Ibrahim was head of the BJP,” said the irrepressible Shiv Sena UBT spokesperson Sanjay Raut, dismissing the allegations as “Laughable.”
But how is it that a fugitive and a member of a homegrown drug ring is generating such heat in the highest political circles in the state? And did he have political protection?
At the time of his first arrest from Chakan by the Pimpri-Chinchwad police in the December of 2020, Patil was a local Shiv Sena leader with a hotline to some of the party seniors. He had joined the party in 2016 and began participating in party’s meetings and he hobnobbed regularly with certain senior party leaders. “Within a couple of years, Patil began frequenting between Nashik and Mumbai to attend Shiv Sena meetings,” says a senior Sena (UBT) functionary requesting anonymity given the political twist the case has acquired.
The strapping Patil, who has since been rearrested by the Mumbai police, was frequently photographed with Shiv Sena leaders. His allegiance to the Shiv Sena, the proximity to certain leaders is undeniable but given the quixotic turn that Maharashtra politics has taken since July 2022, the issue now at hand is to prove which faction of the Shiv Sena was he close to? The one led by Uddhav Thackeray or the one led by Eknath Shinde which is now heading the government. It is precisely for this reason that the Shiv Sena (UBT) has been taunting the Shinde government for its ties to alleged the drug gang. Sushama Andhare, a leader from the Uddhav camp has already sought a probe against Dada Bhuse and Shambhuraj Desai two state ministers from the Shinde faction of Sena in the case. Both Bhuse and Desai have since denied allegations of ties with Patil or any other member of the Meow Meow gang.
Patil’s political journey though began around a decade ago when he joined as small-time functionary of the Republican Party of India (RPI). Within a year of his joining the party, Patil, who is well spoken and personable, was appointed as the Nashik youth-wing president of the RPI. But after an initial burst of organisational activities, Patil lost interest and began drifting towards the Shiv Sena which then shared power with the BJP in the state. “According to his parents, he exhibited good behaviour as long as he was with the RPI but as soon as he left our party, he began getting into illegal business and was later arrested by police,” recalls Ramdas Athawale, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment.
According to RPI Nashik unit office bearers, Lailt Patil, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste hailed from the party stronghold of Upnagar, Nashik but his ambitions were such that within a year of joining politics he wanted a party ticket to contest local body elections. “Patil was very demanding by nature. But we have to give candidates as per merit and could not fulfil his ambition as a result he deserted us,” says Prakash Londhe, Nashik district head of the RPI.
Patil joined the Shiv Sena in the summer of 2016 at Matoshree, and there is a photograph of Uddhav Thackeray tying the Shiv bandhan (a saffron band) around Patil’s wrist. In the photograph that has since gone viral, the minister in Shinde government, Dada Bhuse is also present. “I wasn’t a guardian minister then but as a junior minister, I was representing Sena in Nashik. Whenever the occasion rose, I would be at Matoshree along with local Sena leaders from Nashik to take up their issues,” says Bhuse.
Leaders from Shiv Sena (UBT) however allege that it was Bhuse and another local leader from Nashik, Ajay Boraste, facilitated Patil’s entry into the party. “It was Bhuse and Boraste from Nashik who groomed Lalit Patil and brought him to Matoshree to join party,” says Raut.
Multiple leaders from both camps of Shiv Sena though say that Patil was not given specific responsibility in the party although he remained active in the election campaigns of various leaders.
In 2019, Patil campaigned for Nashik Member of Parliament Hemant Godse, who is now with Eknath Shinde and that of former MLA Yogesh Gholap who is with the Thackeray faction.
“Yes, he did participate in my campaign during the November 2019 polls, but he wasn’t seen much after that. I only heard about him again during his arrest in 2020,” says Gholap
Patil’s rise in politics was as sudden as his disappearance from it. He was briefly involved in the export business of sheep and goat in partnership with one of the relatives of former Nashik Mayor and Sena leader Vinayak Pande, but by 2019 he had already moved when he came in contact with the Chakan drug ring. According to police officers, Patil along with his friend, advocate Pradnya Kamble, started assisting suspects in the Chakan case, legally. “That’s when he also began involving himself in drug supply was arrested on December 9, 2020,” said one of the officers involved in that operation.
But barely after a few days in custody, Patil moved to Sassoon hospital citing health reasons, something that prompted Fadnavis to question whether Patil had been shielded by the then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.
“Immediately after his arrest, Patil was admitted to Sassoon Hospital in Pune even while he was under police custody for 14 days. So how did Patil, by all accounts a healthy man still in his mid-thirties, get to go to the relative comfort of Sassoon Hospital? Balkrushan Sawant, associated with crime branch unit of Pimpri-Chinchwad police, who arrested Lalit Patil on 9 December 2020, explains the sequence of events: “On December 11, Patil pretended that he had suffered a leg injury after he fell from the staircase. We first took him to a hospital at Aundh from where he was referred to Sassoon General Hospital.”
Patil was discharged from Sassoon a week later but the very next day, says Sawant, “He claimed that he was suffering from stomach pain and needed to be shifted to a hospital. Later, following the expiry of his police custody, Patil was shifted to Yerwada jail under magistrate custody.”
For their part, Yerwada Jail authorities say that Patil claimed he was suffering from tuberculosis and hence he was kept in the prison’s TB ward. However, his health complaints kept mounting and he was later referred to Sassoon General hospital as per requirement. “Shifting or not shifting to the hospital is done as per the advice of the doctor, and jail administration doesn’t have much to do in this case,” said an official from Yerwada.
Advocate Shishir Hiray, special public prosecutor in the Chakan drug case, says that neither Yerwada Prison department nor Sassoon General Hospital informed him about Lalit Patil’s shift from jail to hospital for his prolonged stay. “As per law they have to inform the special public prosecutor and the court regarding a suspect’s illness but neither Sassoon nor Yerawada administration informed me,” says Hiray, begging the big question: Who was favouring Patil?