15 May,2016 05:30 PM IST | | Chaitraly Deshmukh
The Pune city police have arrested a self-styled godman Ashok Narayan Ghadge (69), a resident of Maharshinagar in Marketyard for raping a woman and clicking pictures of her
The Pune city police have arrested a self-styled godman Ashok Narayan Ghadge (69), a resident of Maharshinagar in Marketyard for raping a woman and clicking pictures of her.
The incident came to light, when 32-year-old woman lodged complaint under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code which comprises of rape (376) and also under the relevant provision of Anti Black Magic Act.
the survivor recalls, "I am married and have two children. I run a small business under Self help group (SHG). My husband and I had planned to build our own house for which we slog day and night. In August 2013, Ghatge had approached my shop where he claimed that he had some powers and can call any one soul by that power. Later I told him that I am worried about my business. He said that god has sent him to help me. He gained my confidence and took advantage of me. I gave him food and water upon which e claimed that he was impressed by my hospitality and would like to help me to solve my worries."
She went on, "Later he claimed that I need to perform one ritual at home known as 'Hawan' in the absence of my husband after which I will benefit. Under the name of ritual, he gave me drink mixed with sedative due to which I became unconscious. He took advantage of situation and raped me. When I realised what happened, I said that I will call the cops but he had clicked some pictures of me with him and hence started blackmailing me. He called me thrice at his place under the pretext of giving me my photographs but instead raped me. This continued till end of 2015. Finally I realised that he is fooling me, I approached police last week."
Inspector Rajendra Mokashi of Kondhwa police station said, "Soon after when we went to arrest Ghadge, he fled but we detained him on Friday at one of temple in city. We have seized his cell phone and other data from his office and at home to scrutinised if we would get the pictures of victim."
On Saturday, Ghadge was produced before the court of Judicial magistrate (First Class) S N Bhosale and has been remanded to police custody till May 17. Assistant public prosecutor Ashok Jadhav argued saying, "it seems that Ghadge use to con women who were in distress and take benefit of their loneliness. It seems that he might have conned many such woman for which his custodial interrogation is needed and he must be remanded to police custody."
