Premium

Beed sarpanch murder: Ajit Pawar backs Munde again, can only probe someone who is named accused

Speaking to reporters in Pune, Pawar said: “How many times should I have to say the same thing in this regard ? Those found guilty in this case will face action.”

Ajit PawarPawar said he has the total co-operation of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde (Express)

Amid Opposition demanding the resignation of state minister Dhananjay Munde over the Beed sarpanch murder, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar Sunday again defended his party colleague stating that only someone who is named as accused can be probed.

Speaking to reporters in Pune, Pawar said: “How many times should I have to say the same thing in this regard ? Those found guilty in this case will face action.”

When asked about instances in the past when ministers facing accusations have resigned, the Deputy CM said, “It is true that some people have faced investigation… But when will you face investigation ? Only when your name crops up during the probe… If your name does not figure as an accused, why would you be investigated?”

Santosh Deshmukh, 45, a sarpanch of Massajog village in Kaiz tehsil, was abducted and murdered on December 9.

So far, six persons have been arrested in the case. Walmik Karad, who is a close associate of Munde, has also been arrested in an extortion case related to the sarpanch murder. There has been demands from various quarters including BJP MLA Suresh Dhas and Deshmukh’s family to apply murder charges against Karad as well.

While Ajit Pawar has backed the minister, his cousin and NCP(SP) MP Supriya Sule reiterated that Munde should resign on moral grounds
“Munde should resign on moral grounds… I am going to raise both Parbhani and Beed issues in Parliament,” Sule told reporters in Parbhani.

Sule Sunday met the family of advocate Somnath Suryavanshi, who died in custody after being arrested in connection with vandalism following the alleged desecration of the Constitution replica in Parbhani.

Story continues below this ad

Sule said that in the Parbhani case, the government is saying one thing while the fact is otherwise. “Suryavanshi was killed in judicial custody,” she alleged.

Sule said that she had taken up both Parbhani and Beed cases with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. “Our party chief Sharad Pawar is making all efforts to secure justice for both the families,” she said.

The NCP(SP) also asked why the stringent MCOCA has not been invoked against Karad, while all the six accused are charged with the same.

“Karad should also be charged with MCOCA. He is on top in ED cases. There are other several serious crimes registered against him. Then why is he getting preferential treatment ?,” she asked, adding that those found guilty should be publicly hanged.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories

Latest Comment
Post Comment
Read Comments
Advertisement
Loading Taboola...
Advertisement