Kirti Azad hints at contesting as Congress candidate in 2019

Vartha Bharati | 14-06-2018 | 21:53:00 IST

Patna, June 14: Suspended BJP MP Kirti Azad on Thursday said he will contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls but not as a BJP candidate, hinting his inclination towards the Congress.

Announcing he would contest from his traditional Darbhanga seat in Bihar, he said: "I will contest as a candidate of a national party other than BJP."

He did not disclose the name of the party but expressed his softness for Congress, praising its chief Rahul Gandhi. "People's confidence in leadership of Raul Gandhi has been increasing," he said.

A cricketer-turned-politician, Azad, who was member of 1983 World Cup winning team, is son of former Bihar Chief Minister Bhagwat Jha Azad.

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Nashik court sends ‘godman’ Kharat to seven-day judicial custody in third rape case

13-04-2026 ¦ 13-04-2026 IST

PC: NDTV

Nashik (PTI): A court in Maharashtra's Nashik on Monday remanded self-styled godman Ashok Kharat to judicial custody till April 20 in a third case of rape against him for allegedly sexually exploiting a pregnant woman.

The special investigation team (SIT) produced Kharat for a virtual hearing in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate B N Ichpurani as his police custody in the case ended on Monday.

The SIT presented the remand report and sought judicial custody for Kharat, a former merchant navy officer. The court then remanded him to a seven-day judicial custody till April 20.

In the third case, Kharat, who was first arrested in mid-March, is accused of sexually exploiting a seven-month pregnant woman, the wife of his office staffer.

According to the complaint lodged by the victim's husband, the accused sexually assaulted the survivor on multiple occasions, including in his office in Nashik, between November 2023 and December 2025.

Kharat also conducted a ritual with the pregnant woman at a temple in Mirgaon village of Sinnar taluka of the district, it said.

Although the victim informed her husband about her plight, he did not believe her. But when he heard about complaints of Kharat's misbehaviour with other women, he planted a spy camera in the astrologer's office to find out the truth and recorded his acts.

The employee later handed over to the police a pen drive containing objectionable videos of the 'godman'.

Kharat faces nearly a dozen cases, eight of them related to sexual assaults.

The SIT, meanwhile, has filed an application in the court demanding Kharat's custody in another case. As the court granted them the necessary permission, the team will take the accused's custody from the Nashik Road Central Jail.

Kharat will be produced in court again in the fourth case on Tuesday.