{"id":5418,"date":"2026-05-20T15:48:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebombaydurpun.com\/?p=5418"},"modified":"2026-05-20T15:48:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:48:27","slug":"ed-gets-godman-kharats-custody-says-he-resorted-to-systematic-extortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebombaydurpun.com\/?p=5418","title":{"rendered":"ED Gets \u2018Godman\u2019 Kharat\u2019s Custody, Says He Resorted to Systematic Extortion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Enforcement Directorate has taken Ashok Kharat into custody. This is because Ashok Kharat is being investigated for money laundering and extortion on a scale. The Enforcement Directorate says Ashok Kharat created a system to take advantage of his followers by making them believe he has powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authorities told a court in Mumbai that Ashok Kharat used peoples fear of religion to get a lot of money from them over many years. The special court, which deals with cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act said the Enforcement Directorate can keep Ashok Kharat in custody until May 26. The reason for this is that the Enforcement Directorate needs to ask Ashok Kharat questions to find out where the money he allegedly laundered came from and who else was involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to what the Enforcement Directorate told the court Ashok Kharat moved than \u20b947 crore through many bank accounts that were opened using his followers documents without their permission. The Enforcement Directorate says 60 bank accounts were opened at a cooperative financial institution with 43 of them opened on a single day in May 2021. The authorities think these accounts were used to move money that was gotten through extortion and other bad activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Enforcement Directorate says Ashok Kharat presented himself as someone with spiritual powers to gain his followers trust. The Enforcement Directorate claims he created fear in people by using rituals and warning them about supernatural things, black magic and bad luck. The authorities say Ashok Kharat used these tactics to force people to pay for rituals and spiritual ceremonies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Enforcement Directorate also says that the money Ashok Kharat got from his followers was moved through accounts that were not in his name and through accounts that belonged to his family members before it was used to buy things like property. The Enforcement Directorate thinks some of the money was made to look like it came from a source by buying property and using other financial methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Enforcement Directorate started investigating Ashok Kharat for money laundering this year. This was after the police in Nashik filed a case against him for extortion using religion to manipulate people and attacking women after giving them drugs. Ashok Kharat is already being investigated for crimes, including rape and cheating. He was arrested after some of his alleged victims filed complaints against him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the court hearing Ashok Kharats lawyers said that some of the transactions the Enforcement Directorate is looking at happened before the case against him was filed. However the court said that the Enforcement Directorate still needs to ask Ashok Kharat questions to find out where the money came from and if anyone else was involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Enforcement Directorate has also searched places in Maharashtra that are linked to Ashok Kharat as part of its investigation, into suspected financial irregularities and money laundering. The authorities are still looking at bank records, property documents and other papers to see where the money came from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This case has gotten a lot of attention from the public. The authorities say they may find things as they continue to investigate the alleged financial network of Ashok Kharat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Enforcement Directorate has taken Ashok Kharat into custody. This is because Ashok Kharat is being investigated for money laundering and extortion on a scale. The Enforcement Directorate says Ashok Kharat created a system to take advantage of his followers by making them believe he has powers. The authorities told a court in Mumbai that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[2975,3374,3332,493],"class_list":["post-5418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-news","tag-ed-investigation","tag-maharashtra-crime-news","tag-money-laundering-case","tag-mumbai-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebombaydurpun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebombaydurpun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebombaydurpun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebombaydurpun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebombaydurpun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5418"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebombaydurpun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5420,"href":"https:\/\/thebombaydurpun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5418\/revisions\/5420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebombaydurpun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebombaydurpun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebombaydurpun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}