Mumbai sex and drugs cult: HC to hear parents’ pleas against Sunil Kulkarni’s Shifu Sunkruti today

Shifu Sunkruti group, run on social media, was a drug and sex racket, the parents claimed in their pleas in the Bombay high court

The pleas filed by three Mumbai couples against Shifu Sunkriti, an alleged sex and drugs racket run by Sunil Kulkarni, will come up for hearing in the Bombay high court today.

Sunil Kulkarni, who ran the group, was arrested last week. (File)

The couples, in their pleas, have alleged that Kulkarni “ensnared their daughters into the group”. The petitioners claimed Kulkarni forced the women into drugs. Addicted to drugs, the women left their homes to join Kulkarni and are refusing to come back, states the plea.

During the previos hearing, on April 19 , a bench of justices Ranjit More and Anuja Prabhudessai directed the police to immediately register an FIR and make “serious efforts” to trace Kulkarni. A day later, the police arrested Kulkarni.

The police is likely to inform the court of the details of Kulkarni’s questioning over the past four days. It is also supposed to inform the court about the statements of the girls, or any other witnesses in the case.

The petitioners claim that the girls, who were regular college students and working professionals, were enticed by Kulkarni and forced into drugs. It claims that under the influence of such drugs, the girls left their respective homes to join Kulkarni and refused to come back.

Patil told the court some of the parents had first approached the police in December last year and then met with them on several occasions since then, but no action was taken.

On the previous hearing, when the bench asked the police why it had failed to register the FIR, the state argued the girls were all above 18 years of age and they had given statements attesting that had joined Kulkarni out of their will.

The court however, junked this argument saying the girls clearly were under the influence of drugs and hencehad given such statements.

It also noted that the state could have sought a magistrate’s permission and ‘rescued’ the girls by sending them to a state run rehabilitation facility or home.