Nashik, Oct 26 (PTI) Former Nashik mayor Vinayak Pande on Thursday denied allegations that he was instrumental in getting Lalit Patil, accused of running a multi-crore drug racket, into the Shiv Sena.

Patil has been arrested multiple times in drug cases, including on September 30 after mephedrone was found from a person outside Sassoon Hospital in Pune.

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Patil, a Yerwada jail inmate who was admitted in the hospital, managed to flee on October 2 before being held some days later from a hotel in Bengaluru.

Pande, who has been accused by the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena of being close to Patil, claimed the drug case accused was inducted into the party in consultation with senior leaders.

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"Lalit Patil came in contact with me as his wife wanted to contest polls from the Upnagar area. In 2018, Patil took over my goat export business and I had an altercation with him over phone. I have not been in touch with him since 2018," he claimed in a press conference here.

Pande, now with the Shiv Sena (UBT), said reports of his driver being probed for links with Patil were misleading as he had removed this driver from work more than a year ago. PTI COR

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)