Maha minister resigns over sarpanch's killing

Controversial Maharashtra minister Dhananjay Munde resigned from the cabinet on Tuesday citing health grounds, which was promptly accepted by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

- Faisal Malik, Surendra Gangan and Yogesh Joshi

Munde, a leader of the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party, was under mounting pressure to quit following the arrest of his election manager in the murder of a popular village head who was tortured to death in Beed in December. Munde, 49, is a two-term MLA from Parli assembly constituency and his resignation is a blow to Pawar with whom he shares close ties.

He began his political career under the patronage of his uncle, the late BJP leader Gopinath Munde, but charted his independent course after the senior Munde picked daughter Pankaja over him.

Last December, in the backdrop of the long-simmering tensions between the Maratha and the OBC (other backward class) communities in Marathwada, Santosh Deshmukh, the popular Maratha village head of Massajog in Beed district was tortured and murdered. He was trying to stop an extortion attempt directed at one of the green energy companies that dot this part of Marathwada, according to investigators.