'Godman' Ashok Kharat and Eknath Shinde exchanged 17 calls: Social activist Anjali Damania

Some BJP and NCP leaders too had spoken with the self-styled godman -- who was arrested last month -- on phone, she told a Marathi news channel.

Mumbai: In a sensational charge, social activist Anjali Damania on Friday alleged that Maharashtra's deputy chief minister and Shiv Sena chief leader Eknath Shinde and self-styled godman Ashok Kharat has exchanged 17 phone calls.

Shinde has not yet responded to the charges.

"There are 17 calls between Eknath Shinde and Ashok Kharat...of the 17 calls, 10 were incoming and seven were outgoing...the longest phone call lasted for 21 minutes," Damania told reporters in Mumbai.

Besides, she also alleged that there are 117 calls between Ashok Kharat and NCP's Rupali Chakankar, who had to step down as chairperson of the Maharashtra State Women's Commission and the party's women wing president.

Damania made the statement based on the CDR which has purportedly come out during the investigations into the sensational case involving Ashok Kharat, a astrologer, numerologist, hypnotist and cosmologist, who has been accused to sexual assault and extortion.

Damania, however, has not yet specified during which timeframe these calls were made.

Damania alleged that the case reflects “political patronage” being extended to the self-styled godman. With multiple high-profile names emerging from the call records, attention is now on the government’s next course of action.