Sipu Jha
NASHIK: People who said they were victimised by astrologer Ashok Kharat continue to approach the police with complaints. The Sarkarwada police registered two more cases against him between Friday night and Saturday.One complaint alleged cheating of Rs 2.6 lakh from a trader in Newasa Phata, Ahilyanagar, while the other alleged repeated sexual assaults on a woman between Aug and Dec 2024. With these, a total of 10 cases have been registered against Kharat, of which eight are related to rape, and two involves cheating and extortion.The police said a woman lodged a complaint stating she was sexually assaulted by Kharat on four occasions between Aug and Dec 2024. The complainant said she got married in 2013 and a year later, after giving birth to her daughter, frictions broke out between the couple, and they started living separately. In 2022, at the insistence of a relative, the couple met Kharat at the Ishaneshwar Mahadev temple in Mirgaon, and on his advice, they started living together again.As per the complaint, the couple visited him again in March 2024, when Kharat told them that their marriage was facing problems due to their birth dates. He also advised them on which crops to plant on their farm for progress. In Aug, when they went to meet him to discuss their problems, the astrologer asked the husband to wait outside. He allgedly gave the woman water to drink from a copper vessel, then gave her another copper vessel and asked her to place it on her head while uttering mantras. The woman stated that she began feeling lightheaded. At that point, the complainant said, Kharat held her inappropriately, claiming he possessed divine powers and promising she would have a prosperous future if she followed his instructions.Subsequently, the police said, he raped the woman and threatened that he could use his divine powers to destroy her life if she spoke about the assault. The complainant said she kept mum despite Kharat raping her on four occasions because she feared for her life and believed Kharat had the power to influence her marriage, as she and her husband reunited after seven years only because of him.Recently, upon learning of Kharat’s arrest in a rape case, she narrated the incidents to her husband, after which she lodged a complaint with the police.In the other case, police registered a cheating complaint based on a statement by a 39-year-old garment trader from Newasa Phata in Ahilyanagar, who said his business was not doing well. On the advice of an acquaintance, he and his wife met Kharat in Dec 2022 at his Canada Corner office in the city. Kharat told the complainant’s wife that he had divine powers and would provide special stones, Pushkaraj and a diamond, for them to wear for progress. The couple gave him three gold rings they were carrying and Rs 1 lakh in cash for the stones. A week later, they paid him another Rs 1.62 lakh when they received the rings studded with the gems.However, there was no improvement in the business. On March 19, they learned that Kharat was arrested in a rape case. When they got the stones checked, they discovered the market value was only Rs 5,000 and that he set them in rings made of yellow metal instead of the gold rings they originally provided.Meanwhile, Kharat, arrested on March 17 in the first rape case registered against him, will be produced before the court on Sunday at the end of his police custody.
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