'Karad set up gangs to lord over Beed district'

Mumbai: Sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh murder case mastermind Walmik Karad, a close aide of former Maharashtra minister Dhananjay Munde, had set up multiple criminal gangs in Beed district to maintain his sway and extort money from development projects, according to a CID chargesheet.

Failure to pay extortion money would invite the wrath of Karad, who would trouble his victims by abducting or assaulting them, said the chargesheet quoting a "secret witness" who appeared before the investigating officer of the Crime Investigation Department (CID), the probe agency in the case.

Statements of as many as five "secret witnesses" are part of the voluminous chargesheet filed in Deshmukh's murder and two related cases, one of them of extortion, last week before a court in Beed district in central Maharashtra's Marathwada region.

Deshmukh, sarpanch of Massajog village in Beed district, was abducted, tortured and murdered on December 9 last year allegedly for attempting to stop an extortion bid targeting an energy company.

Seven persons, including Karad, have been arrested so far and booked under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). The others arrested included Sudarshan Ghule, Vishnu Chate, Jairam Chate, Mahesh Kedar, Sudhir Sangale and Prateek Ghule. One Krishna Andhale is a wanted accused in the case.

Besides others, the five secret witnesses not named in the document have told investigators about the criminal activities of Karad and his associates in Beed district, the home turf of Munde.

Of the five secret witnesses, four recorded their statements before Deputy Inspector General (CID) Basavraj Teli, heading the SIT in the murder case. The fifth one gave his statement to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) Anil Gujar.

The secret witnesses have described in detail the illegal activities of Karad and his associates in the district. In his statement, one of the secret witnesses told the CID that Karad treated the district as his fiefdom where he used strongarm tactics and set up gangs to maintain his dominance.

"Karad kept an upper hand on the district by using those gangs. He also used them to extort money from various companies operating in the district. If any company failed to pay extortion money, the gang members would shut down its operations," the witness said in his statement.

These gangs created a "reign of terror" in the district and if anyone tried to put obstacles in their activities, they would abduct or assault such individuals, he said, as per the chargesheet.

Due to the atmosphere of fear created by Karad and his associates, few dared to come forward to lodge complaints against these gangs. If anyone mustered courage and approached a police station, they would make sure the complainant was ignored by cops, the witness maintained.

Karad owns five high-end cars, two heavy vehicles, and a JCB machine besides other properties, the chargesheet mentioned.

Sometimes bogus cases were lodged against people who opposed the activities of the gangs. After Karad's arrest in January, there were protests at various parts of Beed district. Those protests were staged by members of these gangs, the witness said.

Another witness, who opposed Karad and his gang members previously, told the CID that Karad had threatened him and a fake case was filed against him. Karad and his associates Sudarshan Ghule, Vishnu Chate, Pratik Ghule, Mahesh Kedar, Sudhir Sangle and Krishna Andhare demanded and collected extortion money. If their demand was not met, they would thrash the individual.

One more secret witness, in his statement, told the CID that accused Pratik Ghule, Sudhir Sangle Sudardhan Ghule used to collect extortion money on behalf of Karad.

Another secret witness in the case was a friend of accused Sudarshan Ghule, who recorded his statement before DySP Gujar. In his statement, the witness told the CID officer that he knew Sudarshan Ghule for the last eight to 10 years.

The witness said in 2019, he procured a SIM card by submitting his documents and later gave it to Sudarshan Ghule for his use. On December 6, 2024, three days before the sarpanch was abducted, his friend showed him a video of a scuffle outside a plant of green energy firm Avaada in Massajog village in which Sudarshan Ghule was seen along with others.

During a conversation between the accused two days later, Chate scolded Ghule for not able to shut down the windmill plant at Massajog and returning "empty handed". Chate said there was a message from Karad that if sarpanch Deshmukh came in the way of their extortion demand from the company, then "teach him a permanent lesson", according to the witness.

Altaf Tamboli (40), Vice-President at Avaada Energy Pvt Ltd, said in his statement before DIG Teli that his company had invested Rs 300 crore to Rs 350 crore in the windmill project in Massajog and employed 130 people.

As per complaints received from company officials Sunil Shinde and Shivaji Thopte, they were getting threats from Karad and were asked to stop the work at the plant. On December 8, 2024, Karad called Thopte to his Parli office and demanded Rs 2 crore to keep the project work going, according to the chargesheet.