MUMBAI: Jitendra Shelke, the close confidante of self-styled fraud Godman Ashok Kharat, who sexually and financially exploited several women, was mysteriously killed in a car accident along with his wife and son on the Mumbai-Nagpur highway.
Opposition raised suspicion because Jitendra Shelke was the vice president of Shivanik trust that headed by Godman Ashok Kharat, and Shelke reportedly had several inside details about Mr Kharat and his links in political, business and bureaucratic circles. So, Shelke would have spun the bean and revealed several dirty details, and that would have exposed several top people of Maharashtra.
Interestingly, Mr Shelke was probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) only three days ago, and his accident took place in normal course or it was planned by the people who are involved in Ashok Kharat case.
In the car accident, the 50-year-old Jitendra Shelke, his wife Anuradha (45) and his son Suchit (14) got killed after their car rammed into the heavy truck on Mumbai—Nagpur Samruddhi Marg.
NCP SP MLA Rohit Pawar said that the death of Jitendra Shelke is quite surprising at this juncture, when the investigative agencies were close to the Ashok Kharat case.
“Shelke was a close and confident associate of Kharat. Shelke would have brought many shocking details of Mr Kharat's case out in public; therefore, there is a suspicion in this accident. We suspect that Mr Shelke and his family were killed to save someone who is part of the dirty game of Kharat. The timing of the accident and death of Mr Shelke raises many questions,” Rohit Pawar alleged.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sushma Andhare claimed that Jitendra Shelke was the main link between Mr Kharat and big people who were involved in this infamous case; therefore, the death of Shelke is significant in this context.
“We also need to check whether the accident of Shelke is part of a larger conspiracy and save the many big names that likely surface in the public domain if an in-depth probe is carried out. One had, there is no significant progress in the Kharat case, while on the other hand, people who are involved are getting killed. This thicken the mystery and raises several questions as well,” Ms Andhare said.