NASHIK: The Sarkarwada police on Tuesday night registered one more case of rape against astrologer Ashok Kharat based on a complaint by a 24-year-old woman _ taking the number of such cases to seven after the first case was registered on March 17. Kharat is in police custody till March 29 in relation to the first case.The complainant in the latest case has accused Kharat of giving her water laced with sedative, on the pretext of performing some rituals, and raping her on four occasions between July and Dec 2024 in his office at Canada Corner after she and her parents had approached him to consult on selecting higher education and career options.The complainant told police that she could not muster courage to disclose the incident to her parents as Kharat forced her into submission by threatening to use his ‘divine powers’ to destroy her and her family members’ lives and ensure the death of her father. It was only after she and her family learnt about Kharat’s arrest that she narrated her woes to her parents and they decided to approach the police to lodge a complaint, she told police.The complainant stated that she and her parents came to know about Kharat during their visit to a temple, founded by him at Mirgaon in Sinnar tehsil of Nashik district. The family learnt about Kharat’s spiritual powers and many believers often visit him to seek solutions to problems like ailments, finance, education, job and career, among other things.The FIR stated that in Feb 2021 she and her family first met Kharat to consult him about a house they wanted to build on their farmland. Kharat then advised them against constructing the house for the next two to three years, claiming that the land was cursed and asked them to meet him later. The family then started visiting him on subsequent occasions.The FIR stated that in July 2024, when the complainant and her family visited Kharat for advice on her higher education, the astrologer asked her parents to wait outside. He then offered her a sedative-laced concoction in the name of performing some rituals and went on to rape her, the complainant told police. The survivor stated that she was subjected to repeated sexual assault till Dec 2024 and she kept suffering and did not disclose the abuse to her parents due to fear for her father’s life.The complainant alleged that in Dec 2025, she received a video clip from an unidentified phone number showing her and Kharat in a compromising position. When her family confronted Kharat, he dismissed the clip as an AI-generated video and asked them to register a complaint with the Shirdi police. A case was initially registered with the Shirdi police under the IT Act and other sections of the BNS, but Kharat threatened her against speaking out and she did tell anything about him to the Shirdi police, the FIR stated.Nashik police arrested Kharat on March 17 based on a complaint by a woman that he repeatedly raped her between Nov 2022 and Dec 2025 on the pretext of using his spiritual powers and conducting religious rituals to cure her of some curse. The woman alleged that he also threatened her against disclosing her woes to any person.The state govt set up a special investigation team (SIT) under senior IPS officer Tejaswi Satpute as more complaints of rape, black magic and ‘aghori’ practices by Kharat came to the fore and the issue took a political turn due to his connections with several political leaders.
