Lokmat News Network
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
Walmik Karad, the main accused in the murder case of Massajog’s Sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh, has filed a bail petition in the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court. The hearing on this petition took place on Friday from 11.30 am to 6.00 pm.
As the government’s arguments remained incomplete, the next hearing has been scheduled for December 16. In the murder case, the Kaij police have registered charges of murder and under the MCOCA Act against Karad and his accomplices. Karad has been in custody since December 31, 2024. He has filed a petition in the Aurangabad bench seeking bail. The petition was heard before Justice Sushil M Ghodeswar. Senior advocate Shirish Gupte, representing Karad, argued that the police did not provide written grounds for his arrest, making it illegal.
He further said that the MCOCA was applied improperly, and the approval for invoking MCOCA was granted in a flawed manner. Gupte added that Karad had no connection to the incident and was hundreds of kilometers away from the crime scene at the time of the murder. With no evidence against him, bail should be granted. Countering Karad’s arguments, chief public prosecutor Amarjit Singh Girase presented the complete sequence of events of the murder.
He said that there are eyewitnesses for each incident, along with CDR reports, CCTV footage, and audio recordings of conversations between the accused, all in the possession of the prosecution. In addition, forensic laboratory reports corroborate this evidence. Girase said that Karad was the main conspirator in the incident and that he and his accomplices had demanded a ransom of ₹2 crore from Avada Company. When the ransom was not paid, the accused attempted to shut down the company. Sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh had requested them not to close the company as it would result in loss of employment. Consequently, the accused kidnapped and murdered him. The actual killers were in constant contact with Vishnu Chate and Karad during and after the incident, he said.
Deshmukh’s family breaks down in tears
During the hearing, when the government lawyer showed 23 videos of Santosh Deshmukh’s murder to the judges on a laptop, his wife Ashwini and brother Dhananjay were overwhelmed with emotion. They stepped out of the courtroom and broke down in tears.