Sule also demanded that not just all those involved in the case but also all those who shielded the accused should be punished (Express Archives)
EVEN as NCP minister Dhananjay Munde finally tendered his resignation from the Mahayuti government, Baramati MP Supriya Sule on Tuesday sought to know from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar the reason for the inordinate delay for his ouster. Interestingly, BJP MLA Suresh Dhas claimed the chief minister had asked Munde to resign by 10 am on Tuesday or he would be sacked.
“Munde has resigned 84 days after the murder of Beed sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh and only after the brutality of his associates went viral… For two-and-a-half months, not just people of Beed but from across Maharashtra, there has been constant demand for resignation of Munde. The chargesheet in the case was submitted two days back. Before the chargesheeted was submitted, both the CM and Deputy CM were aware of the brutality of murder. I want to know why did they keep silent all this while? Why has it taken so long for ask Munde to resign,” said Sule while speaking to The Indian Express.
Sule said Ajit Pawar owes an explanation for his silence as the national chief of his party but even Fadnavis, the Home minister of Maharashtra, will have a lot of explaining to do. “Ajit Pawar is the national chief of NCP but Fadnavis is also the Home minister. He like Ajit Pawar was fully aware of the details of the case including the brutal way in which Deshmukh was murdered. Yet both choose to keet silent,” she said.
Sule also demanded that not just all those involved in the case but also all those who shielded the accused should be punished. “No matter who they are and how big they are, those who protected and shielded the accused should be punished,” she said.
Sule said “available evidence clearly suggests Munde should be made a co-accused”. “Undoubtely, Munde should now be made the co-accused in the case… Even BJP MLA Suresh Dhas and several others have made the same demand,” she said.
Dhas said, “There has been 100 per cent delay in Munde’s resignation from the cabinet. Two-three weeks back, Ajit Pawar spoke about how he had resigned when allegations were made against him in the irrigation scam. Ajit Pawar had clearly hinted that Munde should also resign owning moral responsibility. Munde should have immediately resigned but he didn’t. Even a couple of days back, Pawar asked Munde to quit but he refused to listen.”
Dhas said on Monday evening, Fadnavis met Munde at Sahyadri guest house. “My information is that at the meeting state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule and Ajit Pawar were also present. During the meeting, the chief minister told Munde that if he does not resign by Tuesday morning, he will send a letter to the Governor to drop him from the cabinet. Only after this warning from the CM, Munde resigned,” he claimed.
“Though the photos of the murder went viral on Monday, during my speech in the state Assembly on December 16, 2024, I had highlighted how Deshmukh was brutally done to death. I had first gleaned the information about the brutality of the murder from the villagers of Massajog and then placed it before the House. I had turned emotional and so did the entire House,” he said.
Dhas, however, said the chief minister was not aware of the photos of the murder. “Only after the chargesheet was filed, the brutality of the murder has come to light in the form of the photos. And that’s why the CM immediately summoned Munde to Sahayadri guest house and asked him to resign,” he said.
Congress MLC Satej Patil, who is party’s leader in the Council said, “Munde has finally resigned. The resignation has come only after the photos of the brutal murder went viral. There has been a clear delay in his resignation when people of Beed and even political leaders from different parties had raised the pitch about the manner in which Deshmukh was murdered. The question is, why did the Mahayuti government take so long for asking Munde to tender his resignation?”
While welcoming Munde’s resignation, Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil said, “Whatever has happened is good. The intention of Ajit Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis is important. Despite such a big tragedy, they remained arrogant. They did not regret. They will fall in people’s eyes. Their regime is going to sink one day.”
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
5 min read
