Beaten With Rods, Urinated On: Torture Killing That Forced Minister’s Exit

Mumbai:

On December 9, Santosh Deshmukh, the sarpanch of a village in Maharashtra’s Beed, was kidnapped, tortured for hours and left for dead. The investigation following his murder revealed that he was beaten with a rod and subjected to unspeakable brutality. Nearly three months on, state minister Dhananjay Munde has resigned amid outrage over the killing that allegedly involved his top aide. The probe found that Santosh Deshmukh had tried to stop an extortion attempt targeting a windmill energy firm operating in the region and the mastermind of his killing was Mr Munde’s aide Walmik Karad.Avaada, a Mumbai-based green energy company, had been working on a project in Beed’s Massajog village. Beed and adjoining districts have seen an economic boost over the past few years due to the wind energy sector. But local criminals have sensed an opportunity in this boost, leading to extortion bids and kidnappings. In May last year, six months before Deshmukh’s murder, Sudarshan Ghule, who runs a crime syndicate in Beed, kidnapped Sunil Shinde, a project officer with Avaada. He later registered a police complaint. According to police, another accused in the murder case, Vishnu Chate, had called Avaada officials on the behest of Mr Munde’s aide and local political strongman Walmik Karad and demanded Rs 2 crore. The officials were threatened that the company would be forced to wind up operations if they did not pay up.