Beed sarpanch murder case: MCOCA court rejects bail plea of prime accused Walmik Karad

Mumbai, Aug 30 (PTI) A special court in Maharashtra's Beed district on Saturday denied bail to Walmik Karad, the prime accused in the murder of sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh, saying evidence, prima facie, shows his "active involvement" in the crime.

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. Eight persons, including Karad, were arrested under the stringent MCOCA, the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita.

His plea was rejected by special Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) judge (Beed court) V H Patwadkar.

The court stressed that "criminality and vengeance" of the offences allegedly committed by Karad and the co-accused were so severe that, if released on bail, the possibility of him repeating similar or greater offence cannot be ruled out.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has filed a chargesheet running into more than 1,200 pages in the murder case and two related offences.

Advocate S P Joshi, appearing for Karad, argued that MCOCA provisions did not apply because prior approval and sanction procedures were not followed correctly.

Moreover, there was no record of prior chargesheets against Karad, a requirement for invoking MCOCA provisions, Joshi pointed out.

Joshi told court that of the 19 previous offences listed by the prosecution, several were either too old, had resulted in acquittal or discharge, or did not meet the criteria for MCOCA.

Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam opposed the bail application and argued that a prima facie case against Karad had been established and that the murder was a result of a criminal conspiracy.

At the stage of bail, a detailed examination of the witnesses and evidence was not required, Nikam submitted.

The prosecution also presented witness statements and electronic evidence, including call detail records and a voice sample report, to show Karad's active involvement.

Karad and his co-accused took videos of the murder and circulated them on social media to "create terror of their gang", Nikam submitted.

The court, after hearing both the sides, said the evidence, including witness statements and electronic records, "prima facie show active involvement of the applicant".

The court noted that prior to the current case, 19 crimes for serious and cognizable offenses were registered against the accused persons, with seven of them occurring in the preceding 10 years, which "shows involvement of the applicant and co-accused in continuing unlawful activities".

Facts and circumstances of the case "prima facie go to show that there are reasonable grounds to believe complicity of the accused", the court said.

"Moreover the degree of criminality and vengeance allegedly disclosed by the applicant and co-accused in commission of crimes is so severe that if enlarged on bail, possibility of the applicant (Karad) repeating similar or greater offence cannot be ruled out," the court said. PTI AVI KRK BNM