In Mamta Kulkarni’s drug scandal case, the court cancelled the FIR filed on the basis of evidence
Mamta Kulkarni news: The Bombay High Court on Monday said that it is quashing the FIR registered against Mamta Kulkarni due to lack of evidence. The court has not yet taken a detailed decision, but said that Mamta Kulkarni’s petition to quash the case will be accepted. Kulkarni had alleged in the court that she has been made a “scapegoat in the drug scam”.
Hearing their plea, a bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande found that there was no evidence against them other than the allegations levelled in the complaint. In April 2016, the Thane Police raided Avon Lifesciences Ltd, a pharmaceutical company based in Solapur, and arrested at least 14 people. The police suspected that the accused had planned to buy ephedrine from Avon Lifesciences Ltd, a controlled substance that can be misused to make the party drug meth.
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The ephedrine was to be sent to Kenya, where it was allegedly to be used to make meth, which was to be sold in the US market. The police chargesheet names five others as wanted accused, including alleged drug mafia Vicky Goswami, who is Kulkarni’s partner and is believed to be the mastermind of the drug trade. According to the police, Kulkarni lived with Goswami in Kenya.
Thane Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh had alleged that Kulkarni, who was staying with Goswami in Kenya, was also involved in the drug trade. Police said Kulkarni had attended a crucial meeting of Goswami and his associates at Hotel Bliss in Kenya on January 8, 2016, where details of the use of ephedrine from Solapur were discussed.
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(@mamtakulkarniofficial____)The first press conference held by Thane police on April 27, 2016 mentioned that Kulkarni was present at a meeting at Hotel Bliss. In a press conference on June 18, 2016, the police said that there was an attempt to make Kulkarni one of the directors of Avon Lifesciences by transferring shares in his name at cheap prices. The fourth and final chargesheet in the case against Goswami and Kulkarni did not have any evidence of the meeting or share transfer.
The police mainly relied on the statement of the co-accused before the magistrate to prove his involvement in the case. After the statement of co-accused Jai Mukhi was recorded before the magistrate in July 2016 and Kulkarni got into trouble, he applied to withdraw the statement, claiming that the statement was given under pressure. Soon after the case came to light, Goswami was arrested by the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in 2017 and is in the custody of US authorities. The other arrested accused are awaiting trial in Thane jail.