Story Content

Nashik police made 67-year-old Ashok Kharat, a retired Merchant Navy officer called Captain and powerful self-proclaimed astrologer, be arrested on March 18, 2026, against allegations of repeatedly raping a 35-year-old woman over a period of three years (Nov 2022-Dec 2025). He enticed his victims to his office in Canada Corner under the promise of finding solutions to their various astronomy problems, gave them intoxicants or hypnotized them, raped them, and threatened them (such as "your husband will die") to keep them quiet.

Police discovered secret CCTV cameras on his premises and a pen drive that contained 58 obscene videos purporting to be attacks on various women, some from high society circles. Kharat, the chairman of Shree Ishaneshwar Mahadev Temple Trust, was also connected with the politicians, which created a political uproar and a call to take action.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by an IPS teenage officer, Tejaswini Satpute, digs further to look into blackmail and broader exploitation. He has been detained until March 24 on charges of rape and criminal intimidation. Vulnerability exploitation in the name of spirituality is mentioned in the case.