MUMBAI, March 28 -- As victims of self-styled godman Ashok Kharat step forward with allegations of rape and sexual abuse, the case has encouraged other survivers to speak up about similar incidents. The Manikpur police on Thursday registered a rape case against Rishikesh Vaidya, a self-proclaimed spiritual guru from Vasai, for sexually assaulting a woman, claiming he was an avatar of Lord Shiva between 2023 and 2025. The survivor, a 35-year-old resident of Pune, told the Manikpur police that she came to know Vaidya as the head of the organization 'Aamchi Vasai' (Our Vasai) through Facebook in 2023. The police said that Vaidya exploited her religious nature and got close to her under the pretext of imparting spiritual teachings. In December 2023, he travelled to Pune to meet her and claimed that he was "an incarnation of Lord Shiva," and she was "his Parvati." He took her to a lodge in Manjari, sedated her, and sexually assaulted her. While she was unconscious, Vaidya even took obscene photos of her without her knowledge, the police said. Using the photographs as leverage, he later allegedly blackmailed her and asked her to meet him in Vasai. "In May 2025, he called the victim to meet him at the 'Express Inn' hotel in Vasai and attempted to sexually assault her once more," said a police officer. "The woman told us that she had been following the news of a similar case involving Ashok Kharat from Nashik, after which she gathered the courage to confide in her husband about the ordeal," said the police officer. The Manikpur police registered an FIR against Vaidya on Wednesday evening. The woman told the police that Vaidya had also posed as a guru to lure several other women and sexually exploited them....