Mumbai:� All parties on Saturday staged ‘Akrosh Morcha’ (protest march) in Beed district to protest against the gruesome murder of Santosh Deshmukh, sarpanch of Massjog village in Kej Tehsil of Beed.
The protest was also joined by Ajit Pawar-led NCP MLA Prakash Solanke, who sought resignation of his party’s inister Dhananjay Munde. Mr. Munde has come under scanner after allegations that the main conspirator of the kidnapping and murder, Walmik Karad is his close associate.
Maratha quota activist Manoj Jaranage-Patil and Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati also participated in the protest seeking justice for the slain sarpanch of Massjog village who was killed after he opposed an extortion racket. Meanwhile, Mr. Munde said that politics should not be done on the murder of the sarpanch and everyone involved in the crime should be awarded a capital punishment.
The BJP-led Mahayuti MLAs Suresh Dhas and Abhimanyu Pawar, Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) MLAs Jitendra Awhad and Sandeep Kshirsagar also joined the protest march. The protesters demanded the arrest of Walmik Karad.
Sporting black masks or arm bands, carrying banners, placards and photos of Deshmukh, top leaders of various parties joined several thousands, including many women and youth for the silent march. The silent march began from a statue of Dr B.R. Ambedkar and ended at the Beed Collectorate offices. Among the participants were members of the bereaved Sarpanch’s family, comprising his widow, teen daughter Vaibhavi, brother, sister and hundreds of villagers supporting them.
The posters-placards carried slogans demanding “justice for Deshmukh”, and arrest of the prime absconder-suspect Walmik Karad and two more, booking the mastermind/s behind the gruesome killing including a prominent ruling MahaYuti ally Nationalist Congress Party minister, plus others.
On December 9, Deshmukh was allegedly abducted and later brutally murdered after he intervened in hooliganism and extortion bid at a wind power plant company namely Avada Green Energy (AVG), at his village Massajog.
Police have so far arrested four persons, including former tehsil chief of Ajit Pawar-headed NCP Vishnu Chate, in connection with the sarpanch Deshmukh's murder. Police are on the lookout for three others who have been named as wanted accused for kidnapping Deshmukh and brutally killing him.
The opposition party leaders have been visiting the village and seeking justice for Deshmukh’s family. NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar met the families of Suryavanshi and Deshmukh last week. Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray will meet the family in the first week of January.
The opposition leaders have been claiming that Karad was an orchestrator of the murder. Although four persons have been arrested in this case, Karad, who has been named as an accused in a related case of extortion, is still absconding.
Making a serious allegation against his own party colleague and Maharashtra cabinet minister Dhananjay Munde, Mr Solanke said that Dhananjay Munde has been standing behind Walmik Karad. “One cannot expect justice in this case till Dhananjay Munde is in the cabinet. Therefore, I request the chief minister, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar to drop Munde from the cabinet till the capital punishment will be awarded to the perpetrators,” 69 year old Solanke said.
Denying the allegations, Mr. Munde said he had made it clear from the day one that all accused of the case should be hanged and the case should be tried in the fast track court. “I have written a letter to the chief minister in this regard at the beginning of this month,” he said.
Meanwhile, Marathi actor Prajakta Mali slammed BJP lawmaker Suresh Dhas for dragging her name while targeting Dhananjay Munde. The BJP lawmaker on Friday had said that they had seen Prajakta Mali, Rashmika Mandanna and Sapna Choudhary in Parli. “Those who want to learn the politics of event management should come to Parli,” Mr. Dhas had said while taking a dig at Dhananjay Munde.
The BJP leader’s remark has not gone down well with the Marathi actor, who is being targeted on the social media.
Ms Mali said that the BJP leader’s comments were in a bad taste and completely baseless. She said that women, especially actors, should not be made soft targets for someone’s political agenda.
Ms Mali has also approached the state women’s commission against the BJP legislator. “Mr. Dhas should tender a public apology for his snide remarks. Just because some actor attends an event organised by a political leader, she should not be targeted to achieve political objectives. There were male actors who accompanied me for the Beed event organised by Mr. Munde. But Mr. Dhas chose to name only me and two other female actors. This should not be allowed to go on. I am going to fight against this on behalf of all female actors. I have complete support of my fraternity,” she said.
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