Beed sarpanch murder | 'Baap sitting here': Purported audio clip of Walmik Karad assuring man of support goes viral

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: An undated audio clip of purported conversation of Walmik Karad, arrested in an extortion case linked to sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh murder case, has surfaced on social media, in which he asks a man not to worry as "Baap" or influential people were sitting in Beed.

Karad is a close aide of Maharashtra minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Dhananjay Munde, who represents the Parli assembly constituency in Beed district.

Santosh Deshmukh, sarpanch of Massajog village in Beed, was abducted and tortured to death on December 9 allegedly for attempting to stop an extortion bid on an energy firm in the district. Police have so far arrested seven persons in connection with the murder, while Karad is one of the accused arrested in the related extortion case.

The audio clip starts with a man from Nashik purportedly calling Karad, whom he addresses as "Anna". The caller informs him that he has started getting phone calls from a police station in Beed. Anna then asks him to share the concerned police officer's number. The caller gives a woman police sub-inspector's phone number.

Karad then purportedly makes a conference call to the policewoman and identifies himself. Addressing the policewoman as "Tai" (sister), he urges her not to act against the caller from Nashik. She tells him that since the social media post in question has been deleted, there was no issue now.

After the policewoman disconnects the call, Karad asks the caller from Nashik to forget the issue and says "Ithe baap baslelet", which literally means "father sitting here".

Last week, a video clip of Karad, Sudarshan Ghule and Vishnu Chate, all three accused in an extortion case linked to the sarpanch's murder, walking together emerged on social media. In the purported video, a police officer, who has now been suspended, is also seen in a group of persons accompanying the accused trio.