A Thane sessions court on Thursday rejected bail applications of four accused in the Ephedrine drug haul case in which former Bollywood actress Mamta Kulkarni and her husband are the main accused.
A Thane sessions court on Thursday rejected bail applications of four accused in the Ephedrine drug haul case in which former Bollywood actress Mamta Kulkarni and her husband are the main accused.
Manoj Jain, a director with Avon Lifesciences Ltd; Rajendra Dimri, production manager of the same company; Babasaheb Dhotre, transporter and Punit Shringi were arrested in April, for their alleged involvement in the excessive production of Ephedrine in their Solapur-based company.
They had applied for bail during late May. On Thursday, the Thane sessions court rejected their bail application in the same case.
It was Jain and Shringi who first moved their bail applications in the court of additional sessions judge H.M. Patwardhan. The other two arrested accused later applied for the same. At that time, the investigating officer, Bharat Shelke, was on leave, due to which the judge adjourned the hearing and postponed the matter to June.
Sources said, “During the last hearing, the investigation officer requested to speak in the case in front of judge. Also at that time they had told the court that the investigation of the case is huge and there were many links they were yet to find out. They said they were working on it and therefore requested that bail not be granted to the accused.”
The Thane police has named Kulkarni as one of the key accused in a multi-crore drug racket linked to drug baron Vicky Goswami, claiming that she was actively involved in the illicit activities and that it would seek her extradition from Kenya. The extradition process will soon follow, one of the officials said.
