Mamta Kulkarni now a co-accused in drug racket case: Thane police

Thane Police on Saturday said that former actress Mamta Kulkarni was now a co-accused in a drug racket case along with husband Vicky Goswami, according to new evidence obtained. “Mamta Kulkarni’s husband Vicky Goswami is already an accused,” ANI quoted Paramveer Singh of Thane police as saying in a press conference. “We will send a request to Interpol for a red corner notice against Mamta Kulkarni through CBI,” he further said. [caption id=“attachment_2842182” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Mamta Kulkarni. CNN-News18[/caption] Singh also said that the police was verifying the Kulkarni’s bank accounts and investments in connection with the drug rackets case. According to The Indian Express, the Thane police has so far arrested 10 people in connection with the case in which ephedrine for medicines was allegedly being diverted from the Solapur unit of Avon Lifesciences Ltd and used for making narcotics. Police had also said that the main accused in the case was also in touch with Goswami who had planned to used the ephedrine to make meth at a factory in Tanzania. Another report in The Times of India said that the Thane police had earlier also planned to issue a red corner notice against Goswami. The report added that the police also mentioned that Manoj Jain, the main accused in the case, had met Goswami along with another accused Kishore Rathor in January. This entire drug racket first came to light when Thane police arrested a Nigerian man in a drug case on 18 April when the police seized around 18.5 tonne of ephedrine after raiding the premises of Avon Lifesciences Ltd in Maharashtra’s Solapur district. According to police, ephedrine, which is a controlled drug, was allegedly being diverted from the Solapur unit of Avon Lifesciences and sent abroad after processing. Singh said police have information that Kulkarni and other members of the drug syndicate participated in a meeting held on 8 January, 2016 in Mombasa, Kenya where the logistics involved in transporting ephedrine were discussed. Another meeting was held on 8 April in Dubai where two persons from Morocco were present along with Goswami and Kulkarni, he said. Avon, whose executives are among those arrested in the case so far, had 2 crore shares of which 11 lakh was to be alloted to Kulkarni. She was also to be inducted on the company’s board. Assets and bank accounts of Kulkarni in India, managed by Goswami and her sister, were being probed, he said. After the case had come under the media scanner, a city-based builder, from whom Kulkarni had bought flats, had denied any link with Goswami, a drug racket prime accused, or with drug syndicate. Shabbir Patel, who faced allegations of links with drug mafia, had written a letter to Thane Police Commissioner Parambir Singh rejecting the charge. “I have no links with anyone by the name of Vicky Goswami. The assertion made is absolutely false and unfounded and it is an irresponsible statement made with wanton disregard that is both bad in facts and in law,” Patel, of Oscar Builders, had stated in his letter. (With inputs from PTI)