Overview
- Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said Friday that police will file criminal cases against anyone circulating obscene clips of victims in the Ashok Kharat case, and he added that more survivors are coming forward with fresh complaints.
- Nashik police registered two new cases Wednesday, taking the tally to eight, including a Shirdi woman’s rape complaint and a Pune builder’s allegation that Kharat extorted ₹4–5 crore, a Mercedes, and funded foreign “ritual” trips tied to claims of a deadly curse.
- Investigators froze the bank accounts of Kharat’s trust and seized DVRs, laptops, and documents for a consolidated SIT review, while financial and property audits track assets across Maharashtra.
- Officials reported recovering 35 videos of eight women from an employee’s phone as police work to scrub such content from social media and arrest people who share it, with victims’ identities under protection.
- Kharat told investigators the encounters were consensual “rituals” and his HIV test was negative, even as differing reports cite far larger counts of videos and potential victims, reflecting an expanding and still-developing inquiry.