Karad spoke with key suspects on murder day

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the murder of Massajog sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh on Wednesday informed the special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court in Beed that Walmik Karad, an aide of NCP leader and minister Dhananjay Munde, had a telephone conversation with key suspects Sudarshan Ghule and Vishnu Chate for 10 minutes on the day the murder.

- Nadeem Inamdar

PUNE:

Karad was remanded to seven days' SIT custody till January 22 in connection with the fresh MCOCA charges invoked against him on Tuesday as he is an accused in many criminal cases.

The SIT, comprised of criminal investigation department (CID) officials, had pressed for 10 days police custody as the prosecution linked the murder of Deshmukh to the ₹2 crore extortion case in which Karad has been booked by the Kej police. Investigating officer Anil Gujar, deputy superintendent of police (DySP) CID, told the court about the progress in the case.

Special public prosecutor Balasaheb Kolhe told the court that on December 9 last year, the day of Deshmukh's murder, there were mobile calls between accused Sudarshan Ghule, Vishnu Chate and Walmik Karad from 3.20 pm to 3.30 pm.