A Beed district MCOCA court remanded Walmik Karad, a close associate of state minister Dhananjay Munde, to fourteen days of judicial custody following the expiry of seven days of CID-SIT custody on Wednesday. Karad has spent a total of 21 days in SIT custody-the earlier 14-day custody in connection with the ₹2 crore extortion case involving Avaada Wind Energy company and the second being the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) case in which he was later booked by the CID. The SIT informed the court that their investigation was complete, after which the court sent Karad to Judicial remand.
The hearing began before Beed MCOCA court and Karad appeared through video conferencing. Before that, he underwent a medical examination. His lawyer informed the court that Karad was suffering from a cold, fever and cough and had been administered medicine following a visit by a team of doctors.
Karad, after being on the run since the gruesome murder of Sarpanch Deshmukh on December 9, surrendered before Pune CID headquarters on December 31. He was produced in court immediately after which fourteen days of police custody was granted. Deshmukh’s family members including Beed MLA Suresh Dhas had been consistently demanding that Karad was allegedly the mastermind of the murder and must be arrested under murder charges.
Deshmukh’s brother Dhananjay Deshmukh stated that none of the accused in the case should get bail as they had created an atmosphere of terror and were part of an organised crime syndicate. Police officials said that in response to an application by Karad’s lawyers, the court allowed him to use a CP machine, which helps treat sleep apnea, while in jail. He was suffering from cough, cold and fever, but his vital parameters were stable, police officials said.
Santosh Deshmukh, sarpanch of Massajog village in central Maharashtra’s Beed district, was abducted, tortured and murdered on December 9. Preliminary investigation indicated that Deshmukh had tried to resist an extortion attempt targeting an energy company. Karad was originally arrested in an extortion case.
{{/usCountry}}Santosh Deshmukh, sarpanch of Massajog village in central Maharashtra’s Beed district, was abducted, tortured and murdered on December 9. Preliminary investigation indicated that Deshmukh had tried to resist an extortion attempt targeting an energy company. Karad was originally arrested in an extortion case.
{{/usCountry}}Deshmukh was killed because he was thought to be an obstacle in a plan to extort ₹2 crore from an energy firm which operates windmills in the area, and Karad was in contact with the killers over the phone when the crime was executed, the SIT had told the court earlier.