Sarpanch killing: Congress leaders, Jarange-Patil visit Beed; Pawar to participate in all-party silent march

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, meanwhile, said his government’s response and actions were more important than symbolic visits by opposition leaders

Mumbai: The political storm over the murder of a sarpanch in Beed district earlier this month picked up on Wednesday, with Congress leaders Balasaheb Thorat and Amit Deshmukh and Maratha activist Manoj Jarange-Patil meeting the family of the deceased Santosh Deshmukh. Opposition parties have been piling pressure on the Maharashtra government and Beed district administration to take action against the culprits following the murder on December 9.

Sarpanch killing: Congress leaders, Jarange-Patil visit Beed; Pawar to participate in all-party silent march

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, meanwhile, said his government’s response and actions were more important than symbolic visits by opposition leaders. “I do not believe in promoting tragedy tourism,” he told reporters in Nagpur.

Several Opposition leaders have visited Beed since the abduction and murder of Massajog village sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh on December 9, including the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, and Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar. An all-party silent march has been called in the district on Saturday, in which Pawar is likely to participate, according to NCP (SP) leaders.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Deshmukh’s daughter, Vaibhavi, said her family was not satisfied with the progress of the investigation so far. “Arrest the culprits and give justice to my father,” she said. “Even after deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s assurance, nothing has happened so far. We want justice at the earliest.” Ajit Pawar had met the Deshmukh family on Saturday.

Over 28,000 gram panchayats in the state will observe a bandh on January 9 to protest against Deshmukh’s murder. Social activist Anjali Damania on Wednesday declared she would hold a sit-in protest in Beed until Walmik Karad, one of the accused who is a close aide of Nationalist Congress Party minister Dhananjay Munde, is arrested.

Opposition parties have also called for Munde’s sacking, alleging that he has been supporting Karad. Sandeep Kshirsagar, the NCP (SP) MLA from Beed, said, “[Dhananjay] Munde saheb himself accepted his proximity with Walmik Karad. If he remains in that ministerial position, then people are not sure there will be an impartial probe.”

Kshirsagar also demanded Karad’s arrest, declaring him the mastermind behind the murder. To be sure, Karad has not been named as the accused in Deshmukh’s murder. He has been booked for his alleged involvement in an extortion case that eventually led to the murder.

Deshmukh was murdered on December 9 after he intervened in an extortion bid at a local wind power plant. There have been allegations that he was tortured, his eyes were burnt, and he was beaten up brutally with iron rods, leading to his death.

Opposition leaders have also alleged that Munde’s associates have been running a reign of terror in Beed. After meeting Deshmukh’s family on Wednesday, Thorat said the fear of the law is missing in Beed. “Goons should fear the law, and that only happens if action is taken at the appropriate time. Santosh Desmukh’s [murder] case is a fine example that indicates inaction by the police in time.”

The Maharashtra government has announced a judicial inquiry into the case and transferred the Beed superintendent of police for failing to take prompt action. The state government has also constituted a Special Investigation Team headed by an inspector general of police to conduct a probe into the murder. Fadnavis has previously said that if Karad is indeed found to be the mastermind in the case, he will face action.

Fadnavis has also been criticised by opposition parties for not visiting Beed and Parbhani, which also recently witnessed violence, after assuming office earlier this month. Reacting to the criticism on Wednesday, the chief minister said on Wednesday, “Both incidents are extremely serious. What matters is the swift action taken by my government. While I was occupied with the winter session, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar visited the victims’ families.”

He added that his government would not tolerate anyone’s “dadagiri” (bullying) in Beed. “I have said this before and am repeating it again—we will not stop until we set everything right. We will also not tolerate anyone’s dadagiri.”

The Beed district is politically significant in the backdrop of the Maratha reservation protest led by Jarange-Patil over the last few years. It is one of the districts in the Marathwada region, where social harmony has been badly impacted due to the Marathas’ demand for inclusion in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community’s reservation quota. OBC groups have opposed the demand, saying they do not want to share their quota with any other community.

Significantly, Deshmukh was a Maratha, while the accused in his murder, as well as Karad and Munde, are OBCs. The Maratha Kranti Morcha, a Maratha community outfit, held a protest at Lalbaug in Mumbai on Wednesday, demanding swift action against the accused in the case.

Jarange-Patil on Wednesday also met the family of Somnath Suryavanshi, the Dalit law student who died in judicial custody after being arrested in connection with the violence in Parbhani over the vandalism of a Constitution replica.

The Maratha activist called for action against the police personnel involved in his death. “Suryawanshi’s family is suffering because of the police. He died because of police assault, and all those guilty in it should not be spared,” Jarange-Patil told reporters after meeting the family.

According to an interim postmortem report, the 35-year-old Suryawanshi died due to “shock following multiple injuries”. He was among over 50 people who were arrested after violence erupted in Parbhani on December 10. He was lodged in the Parbhani district prison, along with several other accused, and died on December 15 after complaining of chest pain while he was in judicial custody.