Maha Kumbh 2025: Mamata Kulkarni expelled from Kinnar Akhada, Mahamandaleshwar Laxmi Tripathi also ousted

Amid the ongoing Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, Bollywood actress Mamta Kulkarni on Friday was expelled from the Kinnar Akhara. Mahamandaleshwar Laxminaryan Tripathi was also ousted for inducting the Bollywood actress, who is accused of treason. 

As per Rishi Ajay Das, who claims to be the founder of the Kinnar Akhara, Mamta Kulkarni was inducted into the religious sect and designated as Mahamandaleshwar without his knowledge. While accusing Tripathi of violating the rules, he announced plans to restructure the Akhara. 

Kinnar Akhara is under the Juna Akhada and promotes discussions on Hinduism and topics related to the LGBT community. 

Earlier this month, Kulkarni took ‘sanyas’ by performing her own ‘pind daan’ and was thereafter designated as the Mahamandaleshwar of the Kinnar Akhara at the Maha Kumbh Mela 2025. Upon being inducted into the Akhara, she changed her name to Shri Yamai Mamta Nandgiri. 

Her anointment as the Mahamandaleshwar was not received very warmly by many. Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev was among those who criticised the Bollywood actor’s sudden anointment, saying that no person can attain sainthood “in a single day”. 

“Some individuals, who were indulged in worldly pleasures just yesterday, suddenly become saints or even attain titles like Mahamandaleshwar in a single day,” the yoga guru told news agency PTI.

Transgender Kathavachak Jagatguru Himangi Sakhi Maa accused the Kinnar Akhara of anointing the Bollywood actress as Mahamandaleshwar for publicity purpose.

The religious preacher further questioned Kulkarni’s anointment, citing the latter’s arrest in connection with drug cases. She also sought a probe into how Mamta Kulkarni was anointed as the Mahamandaleshwar all of a sudden. 

During the 1990s, Mamta Kulkarni gave several Bollywood and South hits. She made her Bollywood debut with the 1992 film Tirangaa opposite Nana Patekar and Raaj Kumar. Some of her notable films are Aashiq Awara (1993), Krantiveer (1994), Karan Arjun (1995), and China Gate (2001). 

In 2016, Thane Police named Mamta Kulkarni and her partner Vicky Goswami among the accused in a ₹2,000 crore drug trafficking case. It is alleged that Kulkarni along with Goswami and other co-accused attended a meeting in an international drug ring in Kenya in January 2016. 

In August last year, the Bombay High Court quashed the 2016 case against Kulkarni while calling the proceedings as “manifestly frivolous and vexatious”. It concluded the evidence was insufficient to sustain charges under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.