Special Mumbai Court Denies Bail to Kuruvilla Cherian in Satara Drug Bust Case
A special MCOCA court in Mumbai on Friday denied bail to Kuruvilla Omen Cherian, an accused in an alleged ₹115-crore mephedrone manufacturing racket busted in Savari village of Satara’s Javali taluka last year. Special Judge N.R. Pradhan rejected the bail plea, holding that there was sufficient prima facie evidence linking Cherian to the organized crime syndicate, and found no grounds to release him on medical terms.
While no drugs were directly recovered from Cherian, the court observed that statements from co-accused individuals and other material collected during the investigation indicated his alleged involvement in the manufacture and sale of mephedrone (MD).
According to the prosecution, co-accused Rayees Riyaz Shaikh claimed he sourced the drugs from Cherian. Another accused, Vishal More, allegedly confessed that two kilograms of MD had been delivered to Cherian on the instructions of a wanted accused. Prosecutors have alleged that the accused are part of an organized crime syndicate led by Faiyaz Shaikh.
The defense argued that the case against Cherian relied solely on inadmissible statements and call detail records. However, the court rejected this argument, ruling that the existing prima facie material was sufficient to deny bail at this stage of the proceedings.
The court also dismissed Cherian's plea for relief on medical grounds, noting that he had been receiving treatment while in custody and had not demonstrated that necessary medical facilities were unavailable at government hospitals. Additionally, the court cited a pending Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) case registered against Cherian at the Ravet police station in Pune in 2023 as an additional ground for denying bail under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
The case originated from a December 2025 Mumbai Crime Branch operation in which two men were arrested with 136 grams of MD. The subsequent investigation led police to an alleged manufacturing unit in Savari village in Satara, where officers seized 7.518 kilograms of finished MD and 38.82 kilograms of MD kept for drying. Following the seizure, investigators invoked MCOCA, alleging the group operated as an organized crime syndicate.
