The Bombay High Court has quashed a 2016 drugs case against former Bollywood actor Mamta Kulkarni, labeling the charges against her as “frivolous and vexatious.” The court declared that continuing the case would constitute an abuse of the judicial process. Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande, in their July 22 order, concluded that the evidence against Kulkarni was insufficient to constitute a criminal offense.
Mamta Kulkarni had petitioned the court to nullify the First Information Report (FIR) filed against her by Thane police in 2016 under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The FIR was based on her alleged association with Vicky Goswami, who was one of the co-accused arrested following the seizure of one kilogram of ephedrine by the police in April 2016.
The prosecution claimed that Kulkarni, along with Goswami and other co-accused, participated in a meeting in Kenya in January 2016, which was purportedly about the sale and purchase of narcotic substances. However, upon reviewing the witness statements and chargesheet, the court noted that the alleged conspiracy meeting took place in a hotel’s dining hall, where Kulkarni was merely present and seated next to the dining table.
Also Read
The court emphasized that mere attendance at a meeting, without further evidence of active participation or agreement to engage in illegal activities, is not enough to sustain a conviction under the NDPS Act.
