The assailants of Santosh Deshmukh, a sarpanch (village head) in Maharashtra’s Beed district, recorded 15 videos, clicked eight photos, and made two video calls as they abducted, tortured, killed, and dumped his body on a roadside in December. According to the charge sheet submitted in the case last week, Deshmukh was abducted for allegedly attempting to foil an extortion bid on an energy company.
The brutality of the murder cited in the charge sheet forced Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Dhananjay Munde to resign as minister on Tuesday amid mounting pressure on him to do so following his aide Walmiki Karad’s arrest in the case.
The pictures and videos of Deshmukh’s torture and the murder went viral on social media and sparked outrage. In one of the videos, five accused are purportedly seen thrashing Deshmukh with a pipe and a stick besides kicking and punching him. The video shows Deshmukh half-clad as he is being forced to sit.
In another video, Deshmukh is purportedly seen forced to chant “Sudarshan Ghule [one of the accused] is the father of all”. Another accused urinated on Deshmukh as he bled profusely, said the chargesheet
As Deshmukh was tortured, accused Krishna Andhale, who remains on the run, made two WhatsApp video calls. The charge sheet does not identify the person to whom the calls were made.
Police have recovered 15 broken pieces of the pipe used to torture Deshmukh, the charge sheet said. Investigators found the accused Ghule ran a crime syndicate in Beed. His gang faces 11 cases. The gang has been active in Kej, Ambajogai, Dharur in Beed, and Kalamb in the Dharashiv district.
Munde is believed to have been unwilling to resign immediately and wanted to explain his side of the story in the state assembly before putting in his papers. But chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and his deputy and NCP leader, Ajit Pawar, turned down the request after initially supporting Munde as the charge sheet brought the brutality of the murder to the fore and the visuals went viral.
Karad, who looked after Munde’s election campaign, is among the seven accused arrested in the case. Munde’s cousin and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pankaja Munde had said Dhananjay Munde cannot function without Karad.
The videos and photos Deshmukh’s assailants recorded are part of the charge sheet, a copy of which HT has seen. They fuelled outrage and prompted a bandh call in Beed on Tuesday.
Nationalist Congress Party – Sharadchandra Pawar lawmaker Sandeep Kshirsagar said the situation became tense after the visuals went viral on social media. “The people started coming out on the street. It is good Munde has resigned.”
Beed Police issued a statement saying the visuals were part of the judicial process, requesting people against taking the law into their own hands.