Pune Bar Case: Court Extends Police Custody for 10 Accused Individuals

A court in Pune has extended until July 3 the police custody of 10 individuals arrested in connection with the Pune bar drug video case.

The arrested individuals include Santosh Kamthe, Vitthal Kamthe, Yogendra Girase, Ravi Maheshwari, Akshay Kamthe, Dinesh Mankar, Rohan Gaikwad, and Manas Mallick, who are associated with Liquid Leisure Lounge (L3), as well as Nitin Thombre and Karan Mishra, who were allegedly seen in the viral video. They were produced in court where the police requested an extension of custody.

The prosecution, seeking the extension, informed the court that they need to investigate the accused’s connections with alleged drug peddlers, necessitating their continued police custody. One of the arrested individuals, Abhishek Sonawane, had supplied drugs to Thombre and Mishra, and the police aimed to identify the main drug peddler, as per the prosecution.

Police informed the arrest of Abhishek Sonawane, Omkar Sakat, and a Nigerian national for supplying drugs to Mishra and Thombre. Subsequently, Aryan Patil and Akshay Swami were apprehended for allegedly supplying drugs to Sonawane. This brought the total number of arrests in the case to 15, according to a police official.

The investigation commenced after Thombre and Mishra were seen in a viral video with drugs inside the toilet of the L3 bar. A case was registered against the establishment for operating beyond the permissible time limit. The excise department filed a case for violating liquor stock norms, suspended the bar’s license, and sealed it. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) demolished the bar’s unauthorized structures and booked two owners under the MRTP Act.

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