Yesteryear Bollywood actress Mamta Kulkarni, on whom the sizzling song “Mujhko raana ji maaf karna, galti maare se ho gayi” had been picturised in “Karan Arjun” (1995), is now in the limelight for wrong reasons. Wife of currently Kenya-based drug smuggler Vicky Goswami, Mamta is under the scanner of the Thane police and drug enforcement authorities who are investigating the seizure of Ephedrine worth Rs2,000 crore early this month.
Taking to The Pioneer on Thursday, Thane Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh confirmed that Mamta was being investigated for her role in the drug racket run by her husband Goswami. “Yes. We are looking into her role in the drug racket being run allegedly by her husband based in Kenya. Our information is that she was picked up and later released on one occasion each by both Kenyan police and US drug enforcement authorities. We are checking if she has taken part in any of the activities of Vicky Goswami in the recent past”.
A day after the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) joined the Thane police in the investigations into the seizure of 18.62 tonnes of Ephedrine from a Solapur-based plant of Messrs Avon life Science and other places made in the second week of this month, the drug case has assumed an international dimension.
Official sources said that the visiting DAE official shared information with the Thane police about the alleged involvement of Vicky Goswami in the drug manufacturing and smuggling racket, which the latter is investigating.
Given that several of the arrested accused in the Ephedrine seizure case were reportedly in touch with Kenya-based drug trafficker Vicky Goswami, the spotlight has naturally turned onto him and his erstwhile glamorous actress-turned-wife Mamta.
After three more persons including main suspect Punit Shringi, were arrested in connection with the massive drug haul, the Thane police chief had said on Wednesday: “We have finally laid hands on the main suspect behind the entire racket. Punit Shringi is a prize catch for us. Some of the persons we have arrested so far were working in coordination with drug smuggler Vicky Goswami. They had visited and met him several times in Kenya and were about to start a project at Mombasa to process the Ephedrine into other forms to be used for party drugs and narcotics”.
With the focus riveted on Vicky Goswami, the ongoing investigations by the Thane police have also thrown up the name of his actress-wife Mamta. Arrested in 1997 for trafficking 11.5 tonnes of mandrax valued at $6 million in the international market, Vicky spent 15 years in a Dubai prison. It was during his incarceration that Vicky married Mamta.
After his release from Dubai jail, Vicky reported to India for some time. He later flew to Kenya, where he is currently living in Naiborbi with his actress-wife. Considered drug kingpin is south-east Asia, Vicky is also a known name in narcotic business circles of Zamibia, where he had been arrested way back in 1983 at the lusaka Airport while boarding an international flight with a box of Mandrax tablets. Subsequently, he spent some time in Johannesburg, from where he ran drug trafficking business with the help of some of the narcotics department officials.
Having acted in prominent actors including Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar, Mamta was big draw in the nineties. Between 1991 and 2002, she acted in nearly 40 films mainly in Hindi. She also acted in Bengali, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil.
Some of the hit films she acted in were Karan Arjun (1995), Aashiq Awara (1993), Waqt Hamara Hai (1993), Krantiveer (1994), Sabse Bada Khiladi (1995), Baazi (1996), China Gate (1998).