Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Madhya Pradesh police have seized chemicals and raw materials from a shop in Bhopal, unearthing a potential link with a synthetic drug factory busted recently in another part of the city, and detained the facility's owner, an official said.
The material seized on Tuesday can potentially produce MD drug with an estimated value of Rs 250 crore to Rs 350 crore, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Sanjay Agrawal said.
The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on October 5 busted the synthetic drug manufacturing factory located in Bagroda locality and seized 907.09 kg of mephedrone with an estimated value of Rs 1,814 crore.
"Following the action of NCB (Delhi unit) against the synthetic drug factory in Bhopal, the MP police received information about the presence of suspicious objects at the same place on Monday night and sealed the spot on Monday night," the DCP said on Tuesday.
He said the police received information that one Amit Chaturvedi, arrested in the NCB case, had rented a shop in Ganesh Market area opposite a warehouse. He used to shift some goods by car to the Bagroda factory late at night.
"On Tuesday morning, police broke open the shop and found various chemicals stored in drums and sacks," Agrawal said, adding the shop was rented to Chaturvedi by one Vishnu Patidar last July.
The chemical found in the shop is used for manufacturing MD drug, he said.
"The raw material found at this shop costs around Rs 60 lakh in local market and can produce the synthetic drug with an estimated value of Rs 250 crore to Rs 350 crore," the official said.
These chemicals were also recovered by the NCB, he said, adding that a 30-litre unidentified substance was also found in the shop on Tuesday.
The shop owner, Vishnu Patidar, resident of Rapadia area in Bhopal, has been booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita section 223 (failing to comply with a lawful order issued by a public servant) for not informing police about renting or leasing out land and detained for questioning, the official said.
The factory busted in Bagroda on October 5 could manufacture 25 kg of MD drug per day, the Gujarat ATS earlier said in a statement.
The illegal unit was located about 15 km from Katara police station and 30 km from the MP police headquarters.
Chaturvedi, Sanyal Baner and Harish Aanjana were arrested in connection with the drug haul.
