Mumbai sex, drugs cult leader spent 19 days in Tihar on charge of raping minor
Sunil Kulkarni, who ran an alleged sex and drugs cult Shifu Sunkriti in Mumbai, had last year spent time in Tihar jail over charges of raping a 17-year-old girl who wanted to be an actor.
Months before Sunil Kulkarni was arrested by Mumbai Police in an alleged sex and drugs racket, the Shifu Sunkriti cult leader had spent 19 days in Delhi’s Tihar Jail. Kulkarni was accused of repeatedly raping a 17-year-old aspiring actress, but he was released on bail later.
Kulkarni has been arrested in Mumbai on charges of trafficking and pushing girls into drug abuse. Three couples have also filed pleas against Kulkarni for forcing their daughters into drugs. The Mumbai police are searching for two sisters whose parents have alleged that they were entrapped by Kulkarni. Sex clips found on Kulkarni’s phone and a pen drive have led the Mumbai crime branch to Delhi. Police suspect Kulkarni operates several firms in the Capital under different names.
Kulkarni spent time in Delhi’s Tihar jail after being accused of raping a girl with one of his associates at a flat in south Delhi’s Kishangarh for several months. They had also captured the alleged crime on camera and used the footage to blackmail the girl, the victim had alleged.
A resident of Ghaziabad, the girl had enrolled in an acting school in 2014 when she was introduced to Kulkarni through a common friend. “Kulkarni had boasted of contacts in the film industry and shown dreams of making it big in films,” a senior Delhi Police officer said about the girl’s allegations.
But instead of taking her to Mumbai, he had advised her to stay in Delhi for a few months to work on her “looks” and put on some weight, police said. “He would keep her in a flat in Kishangarh in South Delhi and would allegedly offer her medicines that the girl said would make her feel sleepy,” said the officer.
According to the police, it was during her stay in that Kishangarh flat that Kulkarni allegedly raped the girl and captured the act on camera. He allegedly continued with the crime, all the while threatening to send the photographs and videos to her parents if she complained about it to anyone.
Kulkarni finally took the girl to Mumbai in August 2015. There, he again kept her in a flat for six months during which he and one of his associates would allegedly rape her, police alleged.
It was when she was brought back to Delhi in July 2016 that the girl decided to break her silence. Since she was scared about revealing it all to her parents, she decided to visit the police directly, a senior officer said.
A case based on her statement was subsequently registered at Vasant Kunj (North) police station on July 20 and Kulkarni arrested the next day. In her statement recorded before a magistrate, the girl also mentioned the role of his associate.
Kulkarni spent the next few days in Tihar Jail before he was released on bail on August 8. The case is going on but a charge sheet is yet to be filed. “The other accused is still on the run,” said the police officer.