Murder unravels lucrative windmill biz

The murder of Massajog village sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh has exposed an intricate and murky nexus between criminality and politics in Beed, linked to the burgeoning business of wind energy which has quietly transformed the economy of the drought-prone district.

- Nadeem Inamdar

PUNE/BEED: The murder of Massajog village sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh has exposed an intricate and murky nexus between criminality and politics in Beed, linked to the burgeoning business of wind energy which has quietly transformed the economy of the drought-prone district.

Deshmukh, 45, who was abducted and murdered on December 9, had reportedly been at the centre of disputes around windmill operations and tried to intervene in an extortion bid by local villagers on a windmill firm, said Beed police officers involved in the probe before it was handed over to the criminal investigation department (CID) last week.

According to local police officers, the murder stemmed from a brawl between Deshmukh and the four accused arrested on December 6 from the site of a windmill energy project being executed by Avaada Energy in Massajog.

The police have filed three FIRs in connection with the incidents - one for Deshmukh's kidnapping-cum-murder; one for an assault on the firm's security guard; and one for an extortion bid worth ₹2 crore by local villagers from the firm that has set up a windmill project in Massajog. The state government has transferred all three cases to the CID.

According to the third FIR, of which Hindustan Times has seen a copy, on December 6, the four persons went to the project site and allegedly abused and assaulted a security guard and the project manager after they were refused entry. The guard, who belongs to Massajog village, alerted Deshmukh as the village sarpanch. He rushed to the site along with a few villagers and the two groups engaged in a brief clash, said police.

Subsequently, the project manager of Avaada Energy lodged a complaint of assault and attempt to trespass based on which an FIR was registered.