3 min readMumbaiMar 4, 2025 11:25 AM IST
First published on: Jan 4, 2025 at 01:55 PM IST
Santosh Deshmukh Murder Case Update: A 3.5 feet-long gas cylinder pipe with iron wires around it, knuckle dusters and wooden batons are some of the weapons recovered by the Maharashtra CID in connection with the murder of Beed sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh. The police suspect these weapons were used to torture and murder Deshmukh on December 9.
According to the police, the initial post-mortem report revealed that there were 56 injuries on Deshmukh’s body. The police said they have also retrieved a video from the mobile phone of the accused in which they can be seen beating up the victim.
A police officer said that the gas cylinder pipe with iron wires had blood stains “which suggests that it was used to beat up the victim”. “We also recovered an iron knuckle punch, wooden baton and other weapons which were used for the assault. We have also recovered six Registration Certificate (RC) books from the vehicles along with two-three mobile phones and ATM cards,” the officer told The Indian Express.
The police said that videos from the mobile phones of the accused reveal the brutal assault on Deshmukh. An official who oversaw the medical examination told The Indian Express, “It looked like he was beaten repeatedly in the same place with the hard and blunt objects leading to blunt injuries all over the body. There were contusions and abrasions everywhere on the body.”
The police have also found that the seven accused suspected to be involved in the murder have a history of violent crime. The main accused in the case, Sudarshan Ghule, who was arrested on Saturday has at least 10 pending criminal cases registered against him including that of murder (of Deshmukh), attempted murder, extortion, abduction, rioting, trespassing, criminal intimidation, trespassing, assault and other crimes.
Accused Pratik Ghule, Krushna Andhale and Mahesh Kedar have at least five cases each registered against them for heinous crimes such as attempted murder, extortion, rioting, criminal intimidation, abduction, rioting, trespassing, among others.
Among the other three accused, Jairam Manik Chate has two prior cases of rioting and assault among others, Sudhir Sangle has one prior case of trespassing, assault and unlawful assembly against him and Vishnu Chate, the former NCP leader, has one prior case of extortion against him.
Walmik Karad, who is said to be close to NCP leader Dhananjay Munde and is allegedly linked to Deshmukh’s murder, has 15 criminal cases against him. These include cases like attempted murder, extortion, cheating, forgery, rioting, unlawful assembly, etc. Last year, just after the Lok Sabha polls, Karad was booked for attempting to murder one Mahadev Gitte in Parli.