Engineering gold medallist turns kingpin of ketamine racket

MUMBAI: A chemical engineering gold medallist from the UDCT (now renamed ICT) and six others were convicted in the 1,195kg ketamine seizure case of 2013 on Wednesday.
Vikas Puri turned from academic hero to the kingpin of a major drug manufacturing and supply racket. Puri spent four years in the pharmaceutical industry before finding ketamine — a banned party drug — paid more. He came to own five flats in an upmarket Powai complex, all of which were attached by the DRI, and an Audi, which was seized.
Puri and the others, Nitin Chinchole, Khema Zope, Varun Tiwari, G S Rao, Senthil Kumar and Rajesh Thakur, were convicted by a special NDPS court in Jalgaon. They were held guilty of manufacturing, possessing and supplying 1,195kg of ketamine worth Rs 120 crore in 2013. Five other accused were acquitted in the case.
“This is perhaps the first time that an agency has been able to procure conviction for all the key players — manufacturer, financier, chemist, transporter, godown owner and buyer and exporter,” an official said. “Those who have been acquitted are fringe players.”
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