Beed Sarpanch murder case: Maharashtra NCP Minister Dhananjay Munde's aide Karad charged

Mumbai: In what is going to increase more trouble for Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party Minister Dhananjay Munde, the 1800-page chargesheet filed by the State CID on Thursday has identified Walmik Karad a close aide of Munde, as the main accussed for ordering the murder of Massajog sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh.

Santosh Deshmukh was kidnapped, tortured and brutally killed on December 9 2024, after he had prevented an extortion from Avaada group's wind Turbine project in Beed.

The daylight kidnapping of a sarpanch and the brutal manner in which he was tortured and killed had not just shocked the entire state but also generated much political heat as Karad was Dhananjay Munde's closest aide.


Karad and Munde were so close that he is listed as a Co-Director in at least two firms which have been registered under the name of Rajashree, wife of the NCP Minister. Karad and Rajashree also co own several acres of land in Parli.

The chargesheet has brought up how Karad and co were running a crime syndicate that was involved in crimes in Beed. Listing the sequence of events the chargesheet points to Karad having threatened an employee of Avaada group which had put up a Wind Turbine project in Beed and had asked them to cough up Rs 2 crore failing which the company would not be able to execute their project in Beed.

On 29th November Karad speaking through another accussed phone number had called up another employee of the company and threatened to stop work as they had not paid the Rs 2 crore demanded by him.