Nashik, April 8 A court in Maharashtra's Nashik district ordered the arrest of self-proclaimed religious leader Ashok Kharat on Wednesday, keeping him in judicial custody until April 21 in a second rape case. In this case, he is accused of sexually exploiting a woman on multiple occasions since 2020, under the guise of religious rituals.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is investigating cases against him, produced Kharat before Chief Judicial Magistrate B N Ichpurani after his police custody in the second case ended on Wednesday.
Due to security reasons, Kharat was not present in court in person, and the proceedings were conducted via video conference.
During the hearing, when the court asked Kharat for his name, he provided his name with a folded hand gesture. The SIT presented the remand report and sought his judicial custody in the case. The court then ordered his 14-day judicial custody until April 21.
Kharat will now be taken to the Nashik Road Central Jail.
Kharat was arrested on March 17 after a 35-year-old woman filed a rape complaint against him at the Sarkarwada police station in Nashik district in north Maharashtra.
Accordingly, a case was registered against him under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023 and the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and Other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act, 2013.
The victim in the second case had been in contact with Kharat since 2013, when she first met him on the advice of a relative to fix her marriage. Even after her marriage, he continued to contact her, claiming to offer solutions to her family problems, and sexually exploited her, according to the complaint.
The woman, who has two children from the marriage, later separated from her husband due to marital discord. When she contacted Kharat again to discuss her future and remarriage prospects, he began to sexually exploit her, the woman alleged in the complaint.
He called her to his office and raped her under the pretext of religious rituals. When she became pregnant, he gave her pills and forced her to abort, according to the complaint.
Kharat sexually exploited the woman since February 2020 and threatened to destroy her and her children's lives if she resisted, it said.
Following the registration of the first rape case, Kharat's misdeeds came to light, and the woman mustered courage to file a police complaint on March 21.
Kharat is facing 12 criminal cases in Nashik and Ahilyanagar, including eight for sexual assault.
The SIT has filed a request application to the court demanding Kharat's custody in the third case of sexual exploitation. He will be produced in court in this case on April 9.
The "religious leader" heads a temple trust in Sinnar in Nashik district and has met several political leaders over the years. After his arrest, photos of Kharat with prominent politicians went viral, causing a political storm in the state.
