Mumbai: A BJP MLA of Ashti in Beed district Suresh Dhas (54) is carrying a determined battle to ensure justice for the family of Massjog village sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh (45) who was brutally murdered on December 9. The murder was apparently a sequel to Deshmukh’s opposition to a large-scale extortion racket.
What is interesting is that Dhas is openly championing the struggle despite the fact that he is a member of the ruling BJP-led Maha Yuti government in the state and the person in charge of the home portfolio is no less a person than Devendra Fadnavis, chief minister and the face of BJP.
Dhas, a five-time legislator, has gone to the extent of joining massive protests organised by opposition parties in Beed demanding the resignation of Dhananjay Munde, minister for food and civil supplies and a leader of NCP (Ajit Pawar), who is reportedly close to one of the main suspects.
Dhas’ actions have certainly caused acute embarrassment to the BJP. In fact, he has risked his political career by openly demanding justice for the Deshmukh family. But there is precious little it can do about him since the people of Beed have rallied around him in a big way.
What makes Dhas take up the highly volatile issue, while all other MLAs of his party are keeping mum over the murder? He has explained that “I saw photographs of the body of Santosh Deshmukh. The brutality of his murder shook me completely. The killers had not spared even an inch of his body. They stabbed him all over his body repeatedly for four hours in a moving Scorpio jeep and later dumped his body on the road for it to rot. Had he been shot dead the brutality perhaps would have been less. But here the killers tortured him to death. We feel bad even when someone throws a stone at a dog. However, what of the extreme cruelty with which Santosh was killed? One look at the body and I decided to risk everything so secure justice for his family. Such brutality cannot be tolerated at any cost.”
Fadnavis has set up an SIT to probe the murder. But till date the name of Walmik Karad, who has been named by the Deshmukhs, has not been included in the murder FIR. His name figures only in an FIR for allegedly extorting Rs 2 crore from a windmill company. The chorus of protests from thousands of residents of Beed has not prompted the police to slap the murder conspiracy charge yet on Karad, who is a highly influential person in Beed.
Many in the BJP are silently supporting Dhas who appear to uphold the moral idiom in politics. “Everything in politics is not about power and pelf. Dhas is doing something commendable. There is no question of any disciplinary action being taken against him,” a senior party official observed.
Critics of Dhas say that he himself has criminal charges against him. When asked about this by mediapersons, he candidly stated that the anti corruption bureau had indeed initiated an inquiry against him. The matter even went to court. But eventually nothing came out of it.
“There was only one instance when I lifted a computer from a government office and took it home since the official was not willing to concede my demand to consider the transfer of government teachers sympathetically,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the SIT has started its work in earnest. It is expected to recreate the crime in detail. But, before that it will be required to arrest two of the three persons who are still absconding. Their interrogation alone will provide details of the conspiracy to murder Deshmukh.
