Beed sarpanch murder: Walmik Karad charged under MCOCA
After pressure from the family of murdered sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh and various political parties, the Maharashtra government has directed the CID to file charges against Karad under MCOCA.
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Karad, who had been in police custody for 14 days following his surrender, was granted magisterial custody by the sessions court in Parli on Tuesday (Express Photo/Vishal Srivastav)The Maharashtra CID on Tuesday filed charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against Walmik Karad, a close aid of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) minister Dhananjay Munde, in an extortion case related to the murder of a sarpanch in the Beed district.
After constant pressure from the family of the murdered sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh and various political parties, the Maharashtra government has asked the CID to charge Karad under MCOCA.
Karad, who had been in police custody for 14 days after surrendering following extortion charges against him, was granted magisterial custody by the local court in Parli on Tuesday. The court rejected the request to extend Karad’s police custody.
As his lawyers immediately moved to file his bail application, the CID stepped in and filed MCOCA charges against Karad. The CID then produced him in a local court in Kaij. The hearing in the case was underway.
Dhananjay Deshmukh, brother of Santosh Deshmukh, on Monday climbed a government water tank and threatened to jump from there if murder charges and charges under MCOCA were not filed against Karad. Karad had been earlier charged with extortion related to the murder case but was not charged with murder.
The Deshmukh family has been alleging that Karad is the key accused in the murder of the sarpanch. Besides the Deshmukh family, politicians from the BJP, NCP and NCP (SP) have also been demanding that Karad should be charged with murder. He has at least 14 other police cases filed against him in the Beed district.
Santosh Deshmukh, the sarpanch of the Massajog village in the Beed district, was allegedly abducted, tortured and murdered on December 9. Initial investigations indicated that he attempted to prevent an extortion attempt on an energy company involved in a windmill project in the area.
The police have arrested seven accused in the murder case, while another is still at large.
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