Ensure adequate security to public representatives: Sharad Pawar to Fadnavis

Pune: NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar has appealed to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to review security arrangements for public representatives and other leaders and provide them adequate police protection.

In a letter written to Fadnavis on Sunday in this connection, Pawar expressed concern over some of the killers of Santosh Deshmukh, the sarpanch of a village in Beed district, still at large nearly one month after the incident.

The reaction to the brutal incident is now coming across the state and the first 'Akrosh Morcha' was organised recently in Beed where public representatives demanded the arrest of the "mastermind" of the crime, the former state CM said without naming anyone.

The people's representatives and leaders across party lines are condemning the incident from public platforms and even mentioning the name of the "mastermind" and the person responsible for it, Pawar said in the letter, posted on his social media handles on Monday.

Santosh Deshmukh, the sarpanch of Massajog village in Beed district, was abducted, tortured and murdered on December 9, apparently because he tried to thwart an attempt to extort money from an energy firm operating a windmill project.

Police have so far arrested seven persons in the murder case.

Walmik Karad, an associate of Maharashtra NCP minister Dhananjay Munde, has been arrested in the extortion case.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) is conducting a probe into the cases.

Some leaders of the ruling allies BJP and NCP as well as the opposition have been demanding that Munde be dropped from the state council of ministers for a fair probe into the murder case.

Pawar, in his letter to Fadnavis, said the brutal murder of Deshmukh is not the first incident in Beed as cases pertaining to murder, kidnapping and extortion were registered there in the past also, and public representatives and leaders have expressed doubts that all these are linked to each other.

"Amidst this situation, the possibility of the criminals posing a threat to the lives of these public representatives cannot be ruled out," he said.

"Therefore, recognising the seriousness of the matter, the chief minister has been urged through a formal memorandum to review the security arrangements for these representatives and other leaders and to provide adequate police protection to them through the state government," he said.