CHHATRAPATI SAMBHAJINAGAR: Police arrested on Saturday three suspects in the Dec 9, 2024 abduction-murder of Massajog sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh in Kaij taluka of Beed district. A Beed police special squad arrested two of the three wanted suspects in Balewadi, Pune. Dnyaneshwar, alias Sudarshan Chandrabhan Ghule (26), and Sudhir Dnyanoba Sangle (23) are both residents of Takli village in Kaij taluka. They had been evading arrest since the case was registered on Dec 9 by Kaij police.
Massajog resident Siddharth, alias Bhavdya Bhiwa Sonawane (32), suspected of having provided the sarpanch’s location to the alleged killers, was arrested from Kalyan and brought to Kaij. Custody of all three arrested on Saturday was handed to the state CID team investigating the case.
The investigators also detained, from Nanded, an Ayurveda graduate, who had been on the run since the case was registered, for questioning as he is suspected of having financially supported the murder suspects. He was still being questioned in Kaij as of Saturday evening.
Ghule, Sangle and Sonawane were produced before a magisterial court in Kaij, which ordered the three remanded in CID custody till Jan 18.
An SIT headed by Maharashtra CID DIG Basavraj Teli is investigating the sarpanch’s murder along with two other cases – an alleged attempt to extort Rs 2 crore from a renewable energy firm at Massajog and the assaulting of employees of the firm. The SIT said the cases are related.
Beed police’s local crime branch had arrested three suspects – Jayram Manik Chate, Mahesh Sakharam Kedar and Pratik Bhimrao Ghule – of a total of seven accused on Dec 11. The case was handed over to CID on Dec 13.
Beed SP Navneet Kanwat told TOI, “After the ‘Jalsamadhi Andolan’ by the sarpanch’s family and Massajog villagers, we had sought 10 days to nab the absconding suspects. For the past three days, our teams were working on all possible clues and links we could collect from the ground. We were able to reach an Ayurveda graduate hiding in Nanded and, through him, were able to nab the two suspects from Pune.
Another person, who is accused of tailing the sarpanch and passing on all his information to the key suspect, has been arrested from Kalyan. Our team is working on leads to arrest one more absconding suspect.”
(Inputs from Gitesh Shelke)
