Pune drug party case: Ex-minister Khadse's son-in-law among 5 accused sent to judicial custody

Pune, Jul 31 (PTI) A Pune court on Thursday remanded five accused, including former Maharashtra minister Eknath Khadse's son-in-law Pranjal Khewalkar, in judicial custody in the 'drug party' case.

All the five accused were produced before Additional Sessions Judge J G Dorle (NDPS court) here.

The prosecution sought the extension of police custody of the accused by telling court investigators have found objectionable chats and videos of Khewalkar with other accused, which need to be probed.

In one such chat, one of the accused has sent a photo of a cigarette asking 'maal chahiye ka' (do you need this stuff) to which Khewalkar responded with "theun ghya' ( keep it ).

The prosecution said the chat showed this was the way the contraband was brought to the party.

The prosecution told the court Khewalkar used to book the rooms at the said apartment on a regular basis, and in 2024 and 2025, he had booked rooms 20 times and stayed there for 48 days. He used to party with friends and different women, it told court.

The prosecution also said that they want to trace the source of the contraband.

The prosecution said Khewalkar was in touch with one of the accused, Prachi Sharma, since 2022.

The defence counsels representing Khewalkar told the court there is no need of further police custody as police have recovered everything from the accused.

"In the FIR, the police had stated they had recovered contraband from a purse of one of the two women accused. However, instead of probing them, they sought their judicial custody and now they want to probe the other accused," said one of the defence lawyers.

After hearing arguments from both sides, Judge Dorle remanded all five accused in judicial custody for 14 days.

The Pune police's crime branch raided the "drug party" at a studio apartment located in the upscale Kharadi area in the wee hours of Sunday, leading to the arrest of Khewalkar and six others. Police claimed to have seized cocaine, marijuana, hookah set-ups and bottles of liquor. PTI SPK NP BNM