Villagers to decide on stir as ‘deadline’ for absconding accused’s arrest nears

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Residents of the murdered sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh’s village in Maharashtra’s Beed on Friday said they will decide the next course of the agitation in a few days.

Several people from Massajog village had staged a ‘jal samadhi’ agitation last week and given the police deadline of January 11 to apprehend the absconding accused in the case.

Deshmukh, the sarpanch of Massajog village in Beed district, was abducted, tortured, and murdered on December 9, allegedly in retaliation for his efforts to prevent extortion attempts against an energy firm linked to a windmill project.

As part of the investigation, police have arrested seven persons connected to the case.

One of the accused is still at large.

Walmik Karad, an associate of Maharashtra NCP minister Dhananjay Munde, has been arrested in a related extortion case.

The Crime Investigation Department (CID) is probing into the murder and extortion cases.

“The next course of the agitation will be decided in two days. The decision will be taken unanimously. The police department was given a deadline of 10 days, and it will end in a day or two,” a villager told reporters.

He said villagers have been sitting in a tent for a month now, demanding the arrest of the accused in the murder case.

“We want justice. The sixth accused, who is still at large, should also be arrested,” he said.