Police arrested three persons, including two absconding accused involved in the December 9 murder of Beed sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh from Pune and Kalyan, officials said on Saturday.
The two wanted men, Sudarshan Chandrabhan Ghule (26) and Sudhir Sangle (23), were picked up from Pune, while one Siddharth Sonawane was held from Kalyan in Thane district.
Ghule and Sangle are named in the FIR for the murder while the name of Sonawane surfaced during the investigation.
Police suspect Sonawane, a resident of Massajog village, kept a tab on the movement of sarpanch Deshmukh and updated other accused, sources said.
Ghule and Sangle were handed over to the special investigation team of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which is probing the case, a police official said.
Police have so far arrested seven persons while one more accused is still absconding.
A Beed Police team arrested Siddharth Sonawane from Kalyan near Mumbai, a police officer told PTI.
The police had earlier arrested Jairam Manik Change (21), Mahesh Sakharam Kedar (21), Prateek Ghule (24) and Vishnu Chate (45) in the murder case, while another accused Krushna Andhale is still at large.
Deshmukh was abducted, tortured and murdered on December 9 prima facie for attempting to stop an extortion bid on an energy firm operating a windmill project in Beed district. Walmik Karad, an aide of Maharashtra minister Dhananjay Munde, has been arrested in the extortion case.
Several police teams were deployed to arrest three accused on the run, and an SIT was constituted.
The probe team interrogated three persons to trace the absconding men, appointed informants and used technical skills to nab the two accused, officials said.
A police official said a "doctor" picked up from Nanded district proved to be a crucial link that led police to two accused in Pune.
"Police monitored movements of Dr Sambhaji Vaybhase after his alleged links with Sudarshan Ghule surfaced during the investigation," sources in Beed Police said.
After questioning, police handed over Vaybhase to the CID, he said refusing to elaborate.
Police suspect that Vaybhase helped Ghule flee after the murder.
Amid a political blame game over the Deshmukh murder case, BJP MLA Suresh Dhas launched a fresh attack on Dhananjay Munde and alleged that the two men arrested from Pune are just "pawns" while the "key accused" are roaming free.
NCP MLA Prakash Solanke suggested that Munde be ousted from the council of ministers to ensure a fair probe into the murder case.
Solanke is the first Nationalist Congress Party leader and second from the Mahayuti coalition to target Munde, an MLA from Beed district. BJP MLA Suresh Dhas has been criticising Munde, without taking his name, for crime in Beed.
Separately, an all-party march demanding a deeper probe into the Deshmukh murder case was organised in Parbhani city.
Dhananjay Deshmukh, brother of the murdered sarpanch, demanded a transparent investigation and disclosure of the names of people who helped the accused.
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