2 accused in Beed sarpanch murder case arrested in Pune

“A special team was formed to trace the accused. During the probe, the police conducted an inquiry with a doctor and received information about the accused,” a senior police officer said, adding that the accused will be produced before the Kaiz court in Beed.

Deshmukh, 45, a sarpanch of Massajog village in Kaiz tehsil, was abducted and murdered on December 9. His murder rocked the winter session of the state Assembly with Opposition leaders demanding that the accused be arrested even as fingers were pointed at the involvement of Walmik Karad, former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) corporator and an aide of minister Dhananjay Munde.

Two days after the murder, Karad was named in an FIR for allegedly attempting to extort Rs 2 crore from a windmill company in Beed. Deshmukh’s family claimed that he was killed because he had opposed extortion attempts by local strongmen with links to the NCP. Earlier this week, Karad surrendered at the CID headquarters in Pune.

Six of the seven accused in the murder case have now been arrested. While Pratik Ghule, Jayram Chate and Mahesh Kedar were arrested in the murder case, Vishnu Chate was arrested in the extortion case. Accused Krushna Andhale is still absconding.