Significantly, on Wednesday, special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam presented the primary facts and the motive of the crime to a court in Maharashtra’s Beed district in the Santosh Deshmukh sarpanch murder case. Nikam had been the special public prosecutor in this high-profile case since he was appointed in August. It was his first appearance in court.
He spoke to the media after the hearing when he elaborated on the sequence of events and narrated how he detailed the criminal conspiracy that resulted in the brutal murder of Deshmukh. Massajog village sarpanch was abducted, tortured and killed on December 9 last year when he tried to stop his village people from giving money to an energy company for extortion, allegedly. The prosecution says that Deshmukh’s stand against illegal activities proved fatal to him in the end.
The case-related material and primary documents were submitted to the defence lawyer during the hearing, and Nikam confirmed them. Through video conferencing, the accused were produced before the court. Nikam also held a meeting with the officials from the Crime Investigation Department (CID) and family members of the deceased sarpanch before the proceedings.
Eight people have been arrested over the murder so far. Dhananjay Munde’s known associate, Walmik Karad, is one of the accused. Others in the case include Sudarshan Ghule, Vishnu Chate, Jairam Chate, Mahesh Kedar, Sudhir Sangale, Prateek Ghule and Siddharth Sonawane. Krishna Andhale is a wanted accused and is now another suspect absconding.
On the next court hearing on April 10, Nikam said that it would be accepting an application for framing of charges. The crime itself is brutal, and so the case draws attention because of its political links.
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