‘3 more women go to cops’; priest, guard questioned

Mumbai/Nashik: The SIT probing rape, human sacrifice and black magic charges against astrologer Ashok Kharat on Sunday questioned the priest of Ishaneshwar Mahadev temple, with which the accused is linked, and a watchman in Nashik, officials said.

On Saturday, a staffer of Kharat's office was questioned for more than seven hours by the SIT led by IPS officer Tejaswini Satpute, they said.




The probe has revealed the alleged power Kharat wielded among a set of political leaders as well as transactions linked to land in Sinnar and some other areas in Nashik district.

"On Sunday, the SIT team questioned Pramod Gadakh, caretaker priest of Ishaneshwar Mahadev temple in Mirgaon, and a watchman," an official said. He said CCTV digital video recorders have been seized from Kharat's Mirgaon farmhouse, Tikde Colony bungalow and Canada Corner office in Nashik.

The official said Kharat is named in cases filed at Vavi, Shirdi and Sarkarwada police stations for alleged extortion, blackmail, rape and black magic practices. Kharat has filed a complaint against two persons at Vavi police station accusing them of blackmailing him over obscene photos.

Investigators are reaching out to potential victims and more cases are expected to be filed, said the official.

Sources in Nashik said three women have approached police. Allegations of Kharat and his kin possessing documents of 52 properties are also being probed, they added.

Water resources minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil on Saturday cancelled a 2020 govt resolution allowing Kharat-linked Shivanik Sansthan trust in Mirgaon to lift 3.9 million litres of Darna dam water daily for "drinking purposes". It is alleged that Kharat diverted this water to his mango orchards. Vikhe Patil has also ordered a probe into the antecedents of the GR that led to Kharat's trust getting dam water.

Meanwhile, officials said residents of Mirgaon, Kharat's village, are angry at the way its reputation has been "tarnished", with some of them seeking "capital punishment" for the accused. They also sought that Kharat's properties be sized and the temple his trust runs be handed over to residents. PTI