In Massajog in the Beed district of Maharashtra, a pendal (temporary structure) has been erected outside the village temple, in the shadow of a 100-year-old tamarind tree. Under the shamiana, on a table, is a garlanded photo of Santosh Deshmukh, the 45-year-old sarpanch of the village who was brutally murdered on December 9, 2024. Next to the table hangs another frame, again with Santosh’s photo and a fighting fist with the caption, ‘Nyay pahije (We want justice)’. A large hoarding reads, ‘Our king needs justice!’ Photos of a smiling Santosh are on hoardings all over the village.
Santosh was a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker and belonged to the politically dominant and economically influential Maratha community, considered upper caste. According to the Maharashtra police, he was kidnapped, pushed into a black car, disrobed, beaten with rods and pipes for hours, and urinated on, before being dumped on a road near the village on December 9. The police say the murder took place after Santosh confronted a few people who were allegedly trying to extort money from a windmill company at the company’s premises.
Videos and photos of the murder, allegedly shot by those now accused, went viral on social media and caused outrage across the State. In late December, Walmik Karad, a close aide of Dhananjay Munde, the Maharashtra Food and Civil Supplies Minister who belongs to the Nationalist Congress Party, allegedly surrendered to the police in connection with the case. The Opposition relentlessly demanded Munde’s resignation to ensure an impartial inquiry. On March 4, three months after the murder, Munde finally resigned.
A file photo of Dhananjay Munde.
| Photo Credit:
PTI
Both Karad and Munde belong to the Vanjari community, an Other Backward Classes (OBCs) group which holds sway over 36 of the 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra. Munde hails from Beed district in the Marathwada region, which has been witness to intense social strife between the Marathas and the regionally dominant Vanjaris for the last two years. This friction began primarily with the Maratha agitation, which demanded reservation for the community. The murder of Santosh Deshmukh has exposed the widening fault lines between the Marathas and the OBCs.
Simmering tensions
It has been four months since Santosh died, but people from neighbouring villages and districts continue to flock to Massajog every day to meet the sarpanch’s family. Santosh’s brother, Dhananjay Deshmukh, sits on one of the red mattresses in the pendal, greeting visitors.
Santosh was a popular sarpanch. The residents of Massajog say they have funded thousands of cups of tea and sugarcane juice that are served to those who come to pay their respects.
“We don’t count the number of people who come here daily. But one day, we exhausted all the 2,000 paper cups we had brought to serve visitors,” says Pritam More, a resident.
The sarpanch of a village from western Maharashtra, who had driven for five hours to reach Massajog, says, “This family has shown a lot of courage. There is a lot of anger within the community. The situation is volatile. But a common man like Dhananjay Deshmukh has stood against lawlessness. We support him.”
The anger that he refers to not only stems from the murder, but also from what allegedly happened after. The villagers claim that they had to protest and block roads for two days after Santosh was killed because the police refused to file a First Information Report (FIR).
“The FIR was registered only after Manoj Jarange Patil came here to support us and insisted that an FIR be registered,” says Dhananjay. Patil is an activist who has been advocating for reservation for the Marathas. The police claim there was no delay in registering the offence.
The social tension between the Marathas and Vanjaris is so intense now that residents of Beed say the communities do not visit shops belonging to each other or attend events hosted by the other community.
The Beed police say they have had to drop their surnames from their name plates, as the residents allegedly began to attribute motives to police personnel on the basis of their surnames. “This was done so that there is a sense of camaraderie within the force. It is giving us good results. My people feel confident of standing on the streets for duty. It has reduced caste bias. It sends a message to the people that we won’t judge you on the basis of your caste and we will work according to the law,” says Beed Superintendent of Police Navneet Kanwat.
But Namdev Nagargoje, who hails from Beed, says the rot runs deep. “Society is polarised. I had recently met a friend and asked him to come with me for a cup of tea to a shop nearby. He took me to a shop much further away saying the shop closer to us belonged to a person from the other community and should be boycotted. I don’t see any future for our next generations here if this continues,” he laments.
Kalidas Apet, a leader of Shetkari Sanghatana, in Beed.
| Photo Credit:
Emmanual Yogini
Kalidas Apet, a senior leader from Shetkari Sanghatana, a farmers’ union, explains the caste-based volatility. “The Marathas are numerically dominant here (in Beed), followed by Muslims, Vanjaris, Malis, and Salis. The region didn’t have caste volatility. Many legislators we had voted for traditionally had been from different castes. But things have changed in the last few years.”
Apet says the people who murdered Santosh are a part of what are known as “recovery gangs”. He says, “These gangs have been created to extort money from contractors in this district, who are carrying out development projects. Local MLAs have helped these gangs, which now feel emboldened to do anything.”
The gangs of Beed
The Maharashtra Crime Investigation Department (CID) filed a 1,400-page charge sheet in the case, naming nine men. One of them is still absconding. The prime accused is Karad. Corroborating the charge sheet, the residents of the village pieced together the sequence of events that occurred on December 6, 2024.
“If they (Karad and accomplices) had not demanded extortion money from the windmill company, our sarpanch would not have gone there,” says Jalinder Deshmukh from Massajog, who belongs to Shetkari Sanghtana. “They demanded ₹2 crore from the company, abused the security guard who was from our village, and trespassed on the office premises. Our sarpanch went to resolve the issue and they held that against him. They got angry that someone thwarted their extortion bid.”
Though the Beed police registered three separate cases — of an extortion bid; trespassing and atrocity against the guard; and the murder of Santosh Deshmukh — the CID said that all the three cases were linked and filed a collective charge sheet.
Dhananjay Deskhmukh recounts what happened on December 9. He received a panicked call from Shivraj, Santosh’s cousin, who told him that the two of them had been heading to their village by road when they were intercepted by a black SUV. The men in the SUV, who were carrying weapons, assaulted both of them and kidnapped Santosh, he says. Shivraj urged Dhananjay to lodge a complaint with the police.
Dhananjay says, “One of the accused men, Vishnu Chate, kept telling me that my brother would return in 20 minutes. The police inspector and the sub-inspector also kept telling me that he would return. (The inspector was transferred and the sub-inspector was suspended.) I trusted them and that was my mistake. Had the police not been there, I could have saved my brother.”
He says though most of the accused people have been nabbed, the investigation is not complete. “What is the reason behind this crime? Who had ordered this murder? What was the motive? Who is the person behind these gangs and gang wars? All these aspects need to be probed,” he says.
Dhananjay also claims that the police were planning to take his brother’s body to a woman’s place in another village to defame him. “This was averted because we kept looking for him. As soon as we realised that a vehicle was carrying his body, we started chasing it. That is why they were forced to return,” he says.
More says with his eyes welling up, “Our anna (older brother) was kidnapped at 3.23 on the afternoon of December 9. Those who kidnapped him are not human beings; they are demons. The videos show that when he was on his deathbed, anna asked for water. These demons urinated in his mouth.” More says this brazen act of murder was intended to create an atmosphere of terror in the area. “They (the accused) were confident that their political masters will save them,” he says.
Jalinder Deshmukh says Massajog has never been witness to such a terrible crime, at least in recent times. “We had heard that such incidents took place in Parli (Dhananjay Munde’s constituency), but not here,” he says. “Those who killed him are mere pawns. Their masterminds should be probed. How is it that these young men who had no jobs and couldn’t even afford a roof over their heads have fancy cars? All these things need to be probed thoroughly,” he says.
Several people claim that there are many small extortion gangs operating in the region. They allege that there exists a nexus between politicians, the police, and these criminal gangs, which makes it difficult for them to register complaints.
The rise and rise of Dhananjay Munde
Dhananjay Munde is the nephew of the late BJP leader, Gopinath Munde, and cousin of Maharashtra BJP minister Pankaja Munde. He won the Assembly elections in 2024 by a record margin of 1.4 lakh votes from Parli. When he was sidelined within the BJP, with Gopinath Munde favouring his daughter over his nephew, Dhananjay Munde switched to the NCP in 2012.
He is reportedly close to NCP leader Ajit Pawar and also to BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, who is now Chief Minister. Munde’s quick rise from being a Member of Legislative Council in 2010 to being the Leader of the Opposition in 2014 and to becoming a Minister from 2019 led to many raised eyebrows in political circles. Munde’s supporters claim that leaders across party lines are jealous of his meteoric rise.
A close aide of Munde demands to know why he is being targeted. He says, “Every other big political leader runs gangs here (in Beed). Why is Munde being singled out? Since it is easy to blame one leader, everyone has jumped on the bandwagon. Other political leaders want to remove him from the political race.”
Apet says Munde’s prominent status remains a puzzle. “We don’t understand how he has become so powerful that nobody is willing to speak against him,” he says. “These extortion gangs were operating in Beed when he was the Guardian Minister (between October 2023 and November 2024). Uddhav Thackeray was the Chief Minister then. Now, Fadnavis is Chief Minister and Home Minister, and law and order has broken down. But neither Thackeray nor Fadnavis has said a word against him. What makes Munde so powerful that no top leader from any party speaks against him?”
Speaking to The Hindu, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde says, “This case has spoilt the image of Maharashtra as a progressive State where law and order is maintained. These demons need to be taught a lesson so that such an incident is never repeated in the State. The government is behind this case in full strength. I have spoken with Dhananjay Deshmukh.”
On April 10, Karad filed a discharge application in court, claiming he was not involved in the crime. Though a charge sheet has been filed against him, charges are yet to be framed.
Social activist Anjali Damania says little can be expected from the political class in Maharashtra. “According to the Association for Democratic Reforms, 118 of the 288 MLAs of the Maharashtra Assembly have serious offences against them, including rape, attempt to murder, and murder. And these are the people who sit in the legislature and make laws for us. What vision will they have to take the country forward? For them, democracy is ripping off the people first. Then they give people small inducements,” she says.
Meanwhile, Santosh’s family, including his teenage daughter who aspires to become a fashion designer after writing her Class 12 examination this year, braces for a battle that is sure to be emotionally fraught and long-drawn.
vinaya.deshpande@thehindu.co.in
Published – April 12, 2025 03:17 am IST
