Thane police commissioner Parambir Singh displays the seized ephedrine stock. (Photo: Deepak Kurkunde)
Thane police commissioner Parambir Singh displays the seized ephedrine stock. (Photo: Deepak Kurkunde)
In a major breakthrough in the seizure of ephedrine worth Rs 2,000 crore, the Thane police has arrested three main accused, following which they were found to have links with international drug trafficker Vicky Goswami.
Goswami is the spouse of Bollywood actor Mamta Kulkarni.
The accused have been identified as Punit Shringi (43), who is involved in the handling of Mesars Benzocame of Life Science Company; Manoj Jain, 46, who is director of this company and Hardipsingh Gill (42), who used to help the duo transfer the product from one place to another.
While Jain and Gill were arrested on Wednesday, Punit was arrested on Tuesday. The police said Shringi confessed that after he started handling all the transactions of the company in 2015, he has sent more than 2 tonnes of ephedrine outside Maharashtra.
The Thane police had, in collaboration with the narcotics department of the Thane crime branch, on April 16 seized a huge haul of drugs worth Rs 2,000 crore from the outskirts of Thane.
Among the drugs seized was 18,600 kg of ephedrine powder and pseudo ephedrine powder. The haul is said to be the biggest ever in the state.
According to police officials the Life Science Company has a licence to manufacture ephedrine but it used to hide the actual quantity of manufactured ephedrine and also sent it to other places that would make drugs out of it.
On Tuesday, some officials from The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling, met the Thane police and appreciated their work in busting the racket. Commissioner of Thane police Parambir Singh said, “They have given us a letter in which they appreciated our work, but importantly they have given some information related to the director and some employee of this company who is attached to the international drug mafia.
“According to this letter Jain met Goswami several times in Kenya and Africa since 2013. These accused had sent drugs to the United States of America too,” he said.
The police is now searching for two other key accused, Kishor Rathod and Jay Mukhi, who are absconding in the case. Till now the Thane police has arrested 13 accused in the case.
