Mumbai: In a news that could spell trouble for former Bollywood actor Mamta Kulkarni, The Thane police are in the process of getting a Red Corner Notice (RCN) issued against former actress Mamta Kulkarni, wanted accused in the Ephedrine drug bust case. Kulkarni is believed to be holed up in Mombassa, Kenya, and will find it difficult to leave the country once the RCN is issued.
According to the police, who have been handling this sensitive case, the process of registering the RCN was delayed because they were required to file a chargesheet against Kulkarni first. The police filed the chargesheet on September 29, and are now preparing a dossier on the actress to submit to the CBI, which has an Interpol wing, reported The Indian Express.
The RCN should be issued in another couple of months, police said. An officer said to Indian Express, “Due to certain technical issues, we had to wait before a chargesheet could be filed. That in turn delayed the process of registering an RCN against her. However, now that we have filed the chargesheet, we are working on the dossier and are hoping the entire process should be completed within the next two months.”
According to the police, the RCN will be submitted to the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) from where it will be sent to the CBI. Once the RCN is issued, Kulkarni will find it very hard to leave the country and will be detained if she approaches any airport to fly out of Kenya and the Indian authorities will be in touch and would be informed about it.
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The Thane police says that Kulkarni and her partner, alleged druglord Vicky Goswami, would convert Ephedrine, pilfered from a factory in Solapur, Maharashtra, into methamphetamine, a narcotic substance, at their factory in Kenya. It is believed that this narcotic was then supplied to various countries for smuggling. The police have so far arrested 14 people and named five as wanted accused, including Goswami and Kulkarni, for their alleged participation in this drug scandal.
The case came in the open after a team from Thane police Anti-Narcotics Cell raided the Avon Lifesciences factory in Solapur and found that Ephedrine there was being pilfered and sent to Mombassa, Kenya to be made into narcotics. The police had claimed they busted the entire racket when they interrogated two Nigerians who were arrested with the drug Ephedrine. Mamta Kulkarni’s partner Goswami was extradited to the United States in 2016 and is facing charges of smuggling cocaine into the country. If convicted by the authorities, he could face a maximum of 20 years jail time.
