Mumbai, March 26 Two individuals were arrested in Ahilyanagar, and six have been booked in Nashik, Maharashtra, for allegedly circulating obscene videos of the female victims of self-proclaimed godman Ashok Kharat on social media, police said on Thursday.
Kharat was arrested on March 18 for allegedly repeatedly raping a woman over the past three years. An investigation into the case has uncovered several videos of him exploiting women.
Following the discovery of some of these videos on social media, including WhatsApp groups, by the SIT investigating the case, action was taken, the official said.
He said that Rahul Gangadhar Shinde, a resident of Kopargaon in Ahilyanagar, shared a video of one of the victims on a WhatsApp group on March 25, which was then forwarded by Yogesh Pandharinath Aadhav, also of Kopargaon, to his friend Sandip Garje of Majalgaon in Beed.
The Kopargaon police station registered a case under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act, and arrested Shinde and Aadhav, while efforts are underway to apprehend Garje, the official said.
Confirming the arrests, Ahilyanagar Superintendent of Police Somnath Ghughe warned that anyone circulating such objectionable videos, including administrators of social media groups, would face immediate arrest and further legal action.
In Nashik, six individuals have been booked for circulating such videos.
A Satpur police station official identified those booked as Siddharth Ramoshe, Rameez Shaikh, Rahul Pawar, Pravin Kate, Rahul Hiwale, and Sahil Sayyad. Efforts are underway to arrest them, he added.
Meanwhile, IPS officer Tejaswi Satpute, heading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the Kharat case, appealed to citizens, news channels, journalists, and social media users not to share, forward, or publish any form of videos of the victims.
The SIT is investigating at least six cases linked to Kharat, including those related to rape, human sacrifice, and black magic.