Thane, April 30 (PTI) Thane crime branch has busted a methamphetamine (MD) drug manufacturing racket operating out of Uttar Pradesh and seized over 1.14 kg of the banned substance valued at more than Rs 2.30 crore by arresting three persons, officials said on Wednesday.

The accused include a cloth merchant from Ayodhya who had set up an illicit drug manufacturing unit behind his shop, and an MSc (Chemistry) graduate from Ahmedabad with a history of involvement in narcotics cases.

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Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), Amarsingh Jadhav said the breakthrough came on April 17 when two Thane police constables received a tip-off about a person in possession of MD at a building in Mumbra area.

Police raided the location and arrested Devesh Kumar Ramkisan Sharma (32), a resident of Mathura, and seized 336 grams of MD worth Rs 67.2 lakh.

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An FIR was registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act at Mumbra police station.

During Sharma's interrogation, the police learned that the narcotics had been supplied by one Mohammad Kayyum Yunus Hashmi (45), a cloth merchant from Sohaval in Ayodhya.

Hashmi operated a ladies' wear shop as a front and used the backyard to manufacture MD drugs secretly.

A Thane Police team immediately left for Ayodhya and surveilled the shop in plain clothes for five days. On April 27, with support from the Special Task Force (STF), Lucknow, the police raided the premises and dismantled the hidden manufacturing unit. Hashmi was arrested on the spot, Jadhav said.

Police also apprehended Bichpin Babulal Patel (49), an unemployed man from Ahmedabad, who is an MSc (Chemistry) and the technical expert behind the drug production.

Patel had previously been booked by the DRI, Indore Zonal Unit, and the Ahmedabad Crime Branch in other narcotics-related cases.

During the raid, the police seized an additional 812 grams of MD worth Rs 1.62 crore, along with raw material and chemical equipment used in the manufacturing process, the police officer said.

Hashmi had three previous criminal cases registered against him in Lucknow and Nayanagar in Mira Bhayandar Vasai Virar area.

Similarly, Patel was previously booked in two narcotics-related cases, one each in Ahmedabad and with the DRI, Indore.

"The total seizure includes 1.148 kg of MD drugs worth Rs 2,30,49,600, and investigations are ongoing to trace other links in the smuggling and distribution network," Jadhav added.

Further investigation is underway.

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