A MURDER UNSETTLES THE MAHAYUTI

More than a month after its swashbuckling victory in the Maharashtra assembly election, the Mahayuti government faces a crisis over allegations of murder and extortion involving close aides of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) minister Dhananjay Munde.

- Dhaval S. Kulkarni

The fact that former minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Suresh Dhas is leading the charge against Munde suggests fractures within the ruling coalition. The crescendo of calls for his resignation is only rising.

On December 9, Santosh Deshmukh, sarpanch of Massajog village in Beed district's Kaij taluka and a BJP supporter, was abducted and brutally murdered after he reportedly resisted extortion targeting a windmill company, Avaada Energy. Walmik Karad, a close aide of Munde, has been charged in the Rs 2 crore extortion case filed two days after the murder, though he had initially not been named in the murder case.

Although nine people, including Karad, were arrested, his surrender after missing for days at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) office in Pune on December 31 embarrassed law enforcement. Karad, the former deputy municipal chief of Parli, is widely seen as the constituency manager and enforcer for Munde, who holds the food and civil supplies portfolio. He is alleged to control sand mining, government contract allocations and the sale of ash from the local thermal power plant.

Dhas, who represents the Ashti constituency in Beed district, has launched a fusillade of charges against Munde, Karad and NCP leaders. He claims the murder plot was hatched in May 2024 and accuses Munde of facilitating a deal between Karad and the windmill company at his official residence in Mumbai, where the initial demand for Rs 3 crore was settled at Rs 2 crore.