Mumbai: A police search of the Bandra apartment occupied by Sunil Kulkarni, arrested for allegedly running a cult named Shifu Sunkriti that propagated liberation through sex and substance abuse, threw up three pen drives containing sexually explicit images and videos of youngsters. Police said the images and videos may have been captured without the knowledge of those featured in them.
Kulkarni, who claims to be a doctor with a degree in psychiatry, was arrested early on Thursday by the Crime Branch. The Bombay High Court, which was hearing a petition filed by the parents of four young women that sought the court’s intervention for action against Shifu Sunkriti, ordered the police to register an FIR and arrest him. The police are also going through the content of the Shifu Sunkriti Facebook page, and people who follow it.
“Following the arrest, we conducted a search of the flat in Bandra where Kulkarni has been staying for the last two to three months,” a Crime Branch officer said. “The pen drives contained pictures of young girls in various stages of undress and videos of youngsters engaging in sexual acts. The angle at which these videos were shot indicate they were recorded without the knowledge of the youngsters. We also found similar content in his two cell phones.” He said the four women whose parents had approached the HC do not feature in the content, and Kulkarni may have lured more young persons into joining his cult.
The police also seized several packets of anti-depressant tablets and are investigating whether they were given to the victims. The petition had alleged that Kulkarni had got the victims addicted to drugs to ensure his hold on them.
They added the Maharashtra Medical Council had informed them that Kulkarni’s name does not feature on their enrolment list. “They will be sending us a written intimation to this effect soon,” the officer said. “We are also making inquiries with the institute in Nagpur from where he claims to have got his degree.”
The police are also investigating other claims made by Kulkarni, which include being a visiting faculty at several city colleges and the Secretary General of the National Human Rights Council. Since he frequently travelled between Delhi and Mumbai, a police team will also go to the capital.
