During his speech, decrying the criminal activities in Mohol taluka, Shinde asked, ''What is this 'goondagiri' going on here? Why is terror being spread?"
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde vowed Sunday to send those behind the murder of Shiv Sena leader Pandit Deshmukh in 2005 to jail.
”Do you want goonda raj or do you want ‘vikas’, development?… The one who murdered our Shiv Sena leader Pandit Deshmukh should get punishment under any circumstances… He will not get a pardon,” Shinde said while addressing an election rally in Mohol. However, he has not named anyone.
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Shinde said the government will appoint an expert lawyer like Harish Salve to conduct the trial. “We will not allow our leader Pandit Deshmukh’s sacrifice to go in vain,” he said.
Meanwhile, NCP Solapur district president Umesh Patil said the son of a former BJP MLA was the prime accused in the case. “In 2007, all 13 accused were acquitted by a lower court. The state government has appealed in the Bombay High Court against the verdict. The case is still pending,” he said.
During his speech, decrying the criminal activities in Mohol taluka, Shinde asked, ”What is this ‘goondagiri’ going on here? Why is terror being spread?”
“We will not tolerate ‘goondagiri’ in Maharashtra, which is a progressive state. If people want a crime-free Mohol, then they should vote for Shiv Sena. When I back someone, I don’t fear the consequences.”
Stating that his agenda was development, Shinde said there will be no shortage of development. ”My agenda is development, development and development,” he said.
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Speaking to The Indian Express, Umesh Patil said Pandit Deshmukh was a taluka president of the then-undivided Shiv Sena. “He was murdered most brutally in the same manner as what happened in Beed (Sarpanch murder).”
He said Shinde’s support will be vital to send the culprits to jail. ”It was not an ordinary crime. Pandit Deshmukh was murdered in a savage manner. His body parts were dismembered. The entire taluka was stunned and showed the kind of terror that certain political leaders tried to spread. Yet they are roaming free,” said Umesh Patil.
“The NCP will not keep quiet. Now Eknath Shinde has also promised to get the appointment of noted lawyer Harish Salve. We are confident that the murderers will now go to jail. We are seeking capital punishment for all the accused involved in the case,” added Umesh Patil.
BJP-NCP clash over Angar nagar panchayat
The Mohol taluka shot into prominence recently after Ujwala Thite, a candidate from the NCP, was prevented from filing her nomination papers for the Angar nagar panchayat thrice. She alleged that some associates of former BJP MLA Rajan Patil threatened her and stopped her from reaching the election office to file her nomination paper. Rajan Patil denied the allegations, calling them politically motivated.
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The district collectorate and the police then provided 200 police personnel as security, after which Thite filed her nomination paper. However, her papers were rejected by the election office during scrutiny for not containing the proposer’s signature. Thite has appealed in the sessions court. Her lawyers said the decision is expected this week.
Rajan Patil, a heavyweight political leader from Solapur, had been in the NCP led by Ajit Pawar, and he joined the BJP recently.
After Ujwala Thite’s nomination was rejected, Rajan Patil’s son Balraje Patil took a jibe at Ajit Pawar and even challenged him. Rajan Patil then apologised to Ajit Pawar and the entire Pawar family.
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
