The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court in Thane has rejected the application of Mamta Kulkarni to defreeze her bank accounts and FDs as well as de-seal her two flats at Andheri in Bombay. The accounts were frozen and properties were sealed in a Rs. 2,000-crore drugs case. Additional sessions judge Rajesh S. Gupta, who is also a special NDPS judge, passed the order last week.
In her application, Mamta submitted that she was an Indian citizen and she had been framed in the case. She also said, she was the sole breadwinner of her family and she had to bear the expenses of one of her sisters who was suffering from a mental health issue. She explained that since her six bank accounts and three fixed deposits had been frozen, she could not meet the medical expenses. About the flats, she requested that they be de-sealed as her sister needed to be kept in an orderly and neat set-up.
The prosecution argued that Mamta had played an active role in the crime and she had been chargesheeted in the case. Besides, she had been on the run and was in Kenya ever since the case was registered on April 12, 2016. The prosecution also submitted that all attempts to bring home the accused had been exhausted. It was because she did not present herself before either the investigating agency or the court that her accounts were frozen and her flats, sealed, the court was told by the prosecution. If the application was allowed, she would never appear before the law agencies, it was added.
It may be recalled that the crime branch had on April 12, 2016 seized more than 20 tonnes of ephedrine and 2.5 tonnes of acetic anhydride from a pharmaceutical factory in Solapur and other locations in Thane and Ahmedabad. Investigations led the police to the involvement of Mamta Kulkarni, her husband, Vicky Goswami, and a Kenyan-based drug mafia lord.