Killers of Beed sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh should be hanged: Maharashtra minister

Mumbai, Dec 26 Amid demands for his exclusion from the Maharashtra Cabinet in connection with the murder of Beed Sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh, newly appointed Food and Civil Supplies Minister Dhananjay Munde on Thursday broke silence, saying that the killers of the sarpanch should be hanged.

After meeting Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Munde, who took the charge his department, told reporters: "It has been my demand since day one that the killers of the young Sarpanch of Massajog Santosh Deshmukh and whoever was behind them should be hanged. It has also been my demand since day one that the investigation in this case should be completed, the charge sheet should be filed immediately, the case should be tried in a fast-track court and justice should be given to Deshmukh's family as soon as possible."

"The murder of a young sarpanch in Beed district is extremely unfortunate and equally horrific. Therefore, no one can be supported in this case, even if he is close to anyone. Therefore, the government will not support anyone in this case. The police investigation is underway at full speed to find out the root cause of this case," said Munde, who is under fire from various sections.

Anti-corruption crusader Anjali Damania has targeted Dhananjay Munde over the brutal murder of Santosh Deshmukh. She claimed that there is “solid evidence” of the financial relationship between Munde and Walmik Karad, who she alleged runs a mafia empire in the district.

Munde, who is a close confidant of NCP president and Deputy Maharashtra Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, claimed that politics is being done by many about the killing of Santosh Deshmukh.

"Unfortunately, politics is done to prevent me from getting the post of minister and the post of guardian minister, and this is continuously tarnishing my image. Some people are spending their days criticising me and trying to link me to this incident when I have no connection with it," he said.

"Some people are trying to remove me from social and political life under the cover of this incident, but this incident is unfortunate and my stance is that the accused should be hanged and the real mastermind should be brought to light, and that has been clear from day one. Therefore, let those who want to make allegations do so, eventually the truth and the mastermind of the incident will come to light," said Munde.

He reiterated that the investigation in this case should be transparent and the charge sheet should be filed at the earliest.

Meanwhile, Munde held a meeting with the officials of the Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection, and directed them to adopt the three principles of honesty, transparency and accountability in its functioning as the department has a very important job to provide services.

"The department should do well by adopting the three principles of honesty, transparency and accountability. This department is related to the daily life of all common citizens, so it should work more transparently and with more responsibility. The smart ration cards and modern warehouse systems will be given priority,” he said.

While preparing the 100-day programme, Munde gave instructions to include digitisation of the department and modern warehousing system saying that the functioning of the department should be further improved, a system should be created to get updated information at every stage from grain procurement to grain distribution.

"To speed up the distribution of food grain, the One Village One Warehouse scheme should be implemented immediately, smart warehouses should be set up, the losses due to improving the distribution system will be reduced and the consumers and beneficiaries will benefit, the process of distributing smart ration cards to the beneficiaries should be started, a proposal should be prepared to decentralise foodgrain procurement and maximum warehouses should be set up," he said.

Munde further said that a digital dashboard should be developed for consumer protection and food distribution, awareness should be created on a large scale for consumer protection, schools and colleges should be involved in it, and a mechanism should be created that would provide easy and quick grievance redressal to the beneficiaries.