THANE, July 3 -- The Thane crime branch, with help from Uttarakhand's local police, recently busted a mephedrone-manufacturing unit in Uttarakhand and arrested three men. The police seized manufacturing machinery, raw materials, and a getaway vehicle that the accused were using to flee to Nepal. The operation stemmed from two arrests made by the Kasarvadavli police from Ghodbunder Road on June 1. The accused, identified as Vishal Bipin Singh and Mallesh Ramesh Shevla, were found with 10.23g of MD, worth Rs.35,000, in their possession at Ghodbunder Road. During interrogation, they told the police that they sourced the drugs from Uttarakhand. Technical investigation helped them locate the facility where the synthetic stimulant was being manufactured. Police inspector Salil Bhosale formed two separate teams for Uttarakhand. One team raided the premises on June 27 and uncovered a fully functional drug-manufacturing setup. Machinery and various chemicals used in MD production, worth Rs.18.54 lakh, were seized from the site, but the accused had fled. Simultaneously, another team chased the three accused who were fleeing towards the Nepal border in a Maruti Suzuki Ciaz. They intercepted the suspects in Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh. The arrested men were Om Jaygovind Gupta alias Monu and Amar Kumar Laxmanram Kohli, both residents of Uttarakhand. The third accused, Surendra Yadav, is a resident of Nalasopara. They were all produced before a court and remanded to police custody till July 9 for further investigation.HTC...