Newsmaker | Dhananjay Munde’s right-hand man at centre of Beed murder row: Who is Walmik Karad?

While Karad has not been named officially in the murder case, he has been booked for allegedly demanding Rs 2 crore from the staffer of a windmill company linked to the case.

The Maharashtra CID, which is probing the Beed murder case, has also pressed charges related to extortion against Karad and frozen his bank accounts, and are likely to seize his property worth several crores.

Who is Walmiki Karad?

In Beed district, particularly the Parli tehsil, Karad is synonymous with Munde. His words and actions are considered as Munde’s owing to his loyalty to the NCP leader. Despite not having any official post in the NCP, Karad sits in Munde’s office and meets people on the MLA’s behalf.

Karad hails from Pangri village in Parli tehsil and was born into a poor farmer family. After completing his basic school education, Karad shifted to Parli city in Beed for further studies.

Through a mutual acquaintance, Karad is said to have got a small-time job in the house of Munde’s uncle, the late BJP leader Gopinath Munde, when he was the Parli MLA. Karad continued working there, and slowly, his proximity to the Munde family increased.

Karad started making a mark in Beed when he formed a Ganesh Mandal in the 1980s and started organising political events for Gopinath Munde.

The turning point in his life was an incident of firing in the early ’90s during the election of the Board of Directors of a college in Beed.

As per local villagers in Beed, Karad’s proximity to the Mundes grew after the firing incident.

“During the election, a scuffle had broken out between the supporters of Gopinath Munde and their rivals. In order to disperse the crowd, the police fired and Karad was hit by a bullet in his leg. He then underwent treatment for one month. During that period, he became close to Gopinath Munde and his brother Pandit Anna Munde who is the father of Dhananjay Munde,” a local said.

Karad, known for his organisation skills, would subsequently start working closely with Munde, who was at this point becoming a youth leader in Beed.

The first shakha of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) was started in Parli by Karad. He also planned the Atal Sandesh Yatra in Beed, which was started under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

In the 2001 local polls, Karad was given a ticket to contest the Parli municipal council polls by Pandit Anna Munde, despite opposition from Gopinath Munde.

After winning the polls, Karad became a corporator for the first time and also became the deputy mayor of the Parli Municipal Council. For a brief period, Karad was also an acting mayor of Parli.

Since Karad was associated with Munde, he followed him when he joined the NCP. He again became a corporator in 2017, this time on the ticket of the (united) NCP.

Till now, Karad is said to be the go-to man for organising any political event on Munde’s behalf.

In 2023, at a programme in Parli, former Chief minister Eknath Shinde had openly praised Karad for organising the “Shasan Aplya Daru government (at your door step)” programme that was meant to highlight the Mahayuti’s welfare schemes. Shinde said only Karad could pull off a programme “as big and successful” as this and added that Karad should be with him.

Karad is also the co-director in two companies — Jagmitra Sugar Mills Limited and Venkateshwara Industrial Services Private Limited — that are registered in the name of Munde’s wife Rajashree. Munde and Karad both jointly own around 88 acres of land in Parli tehsil which they purchased to start a sugar mill.

A total of 15 criminal cases are registered against Karad in Beed district, including cases of attempted murder, extortion, cheating, forgery, rioting, unlawful assembly, among others. Recently, just after the Lok Sabha polls, Karad was booked for attempting to murder one Mahadev Gitre in Parli.

What is the Beed case?

According to the police, sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh was murdered after an altercation between him and Sudarshan Ghule and Pratik Ghule, who are the main accused in the case.

Police say that on December 6, four persons, including Sudarshan and Pratik Ghule, went to the site of a windmill energy project that is being undertaken by Avada Energy in Massajog village. They allegedly abused and assaulted a security guard and the project manager after they were stopped from entering.

The security guard, who belongs to Massajog village, is said to have alerted Deshmukh since he was the sarpanch. Deshmukh reportedly rushed to the site along with a few villagers and the two groups engaged in a brief clash, police told The Indian Express.

On December 9, Deshmukh’s family members claim, he was kidnapped “in broad daylight, shoved into a black Scorpio, and allegedly assaulted for around three hours before he succumbed”.

Four people have been arrested so far – former NCP Beed tehsil president Vishnu Chate, Jairam Chate, Mahesh Karad and Pratik Ghule. Following his arrest, Vishnu Chate was expelled by the Ajit Pawar-led NCP on December 14.
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On December 11, another FIR was registered at the Kaiz police station based on the complaint lodged by the windmill company’s staffer against Karad, Chate and Sudarshan Ghule. The employee claimed that in November Karad allegedly demanded Rs 2 crore from him. Karad is said to have done so over a phone call.

Dhananjay, the victim’s brother, claimed Deshmukh was killed because he tried to prevent “an extortion racket being run by the accused”.

“They wanted to set an example through my brother that no one should ever try to prevent them,”he said.