New Delhi:A district court on Thursday rejected the bail applications moved by four of the ten persons arrested in connection with the multi-crore ephedrine drug bust case.

After hearing the applications, district court judge H.M. Patwardhan observed that the four accused could not be released on bail at this juncture.

Opposing the bail, Special Public Prosecutor Shishir Hiray argued that the probe into the case was still on and that the links with drug barons from Pakistan and Sri Lanka had come to the fore during the investigation of the accused.

He said further custodial interrogation of the accused was needed in view of the involvement of suspected international drug smuggler Vicky Goswami, believed to be in Kenya, in hatching the conspiracy to move ephedrine out of the country for manufacturing ‘Meth’. The police had seized around 18.5 tonne of ephedrine, worth approximately Rs. 2,000 crore, after raiding the premises of a chemical firm, Avon Lifesciences Ltd, in Solapur in April. In his argument for bail, Ayaz Khan, the counsel for the accused Manoj Jain, former director of Avon Lifesciences, Punit Shringi, local head of company, Rajendra Dimri, production manager, and Babasaheb Dhotre, a transporter whose trucks were allegedly used to transport ephedrine, said nothing incriminating had been found against them so far. The prosecution had last week told the court that Shringi had allegedly been threatened by the drug mafia in Thane jail to not turn approver in the case. Recently, former actress Mamta Kulkarni was named as the prime accused in the drug racket, with the Mumbai Police claiming that she was actively involved in illicit activities. In all, there are 17 accused in the case, of whom seven are still at large. The remaining 10 were arrested and are now in judicial custody. –PTI