Beed sarpanch murder case: ‘Got offer to conduct encounter of Walmik Karad’

A suspended police sub-inspector from Beed on Monday claimed some people had offered him money to carry out an “encounter” of Walmik Karad, accused in sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh murder case. Ranjeet Kasle, the suspended cop, also said he had mentioned the names of the people who made the offer in a local police station diary.

A senior police officer from Beed, however, dismissed Kasle’s claims as baseless and said he should submit proof of his statements. Kasle was suspended earlier when he was a sub-inspector in the local cyber crime department. Deshmukh, the sarpanch of Massajog village in Beed district, was abducted and tortured to death on December 9 last year allegedly for attempting to stop an extortion bid targeting an energy company.

Karad is among the eight people arrested so far and booked under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). The state Crime Investigation Department (CID) last month filed a more than 1200-page charge sheet at a court in Beed in Deshmukh’s murder and two related cases.

Talking to a regional news channel, Kasle claimed some people had approached him with an offer to carry out the “encounter” of Karad. “I was given this offer by a group of people and I have mentioned their names in the station diary. The offer was only for Walmik Karad and was given to me before I was suspended. I refused, saying I cannot commit such a sin,” he said.

“They make a lump sum offer of Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50 crore. A person who can do this is called…like I was with the cyber department and had no connection with this case, but I was made the offer because they knew I have guts,” he claimed.

Asked about Kasle’s claims, a senior police official from Beed said, “All that he has said is baseless. He should submit evidence for what he is speaking. Whatever he is doing is unethical.” Kasle has already been suspended and a preliminary enquiry (PE) against him is on. The police have sent a notice to Kasle, but he has not accepted it yet, the officer added.

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