Mumbai, January 4: The police have arrested two absconding accused involved in the murder of Beed sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh from Maharashtra's Dhule district, an official said on Saturday. The Dhule police have arrested Sudarshan Chandrabhan Ghule (26) and Sudhir Sangle (23) and handed them over to the special investigation team of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which is probing the case, the official said.

Deshmukh, the sarpanch of Massajog village, was abducted, tortured and murdered on December 9 for attempting to stop an extortion bid on an energy firm helming a windmill project in the region. Walmik Karad, an aide of Maharashtra minister Dhananjay Munde, has been arrested in the extortion case. Santosh Deshmukh Murder Case: Maharashtra Government Forms SIT To Probe Brutal Killing of Beed Sarpanch.

Several police teams were deployed to arrest three accused who were on the run, and an SIT was constituted to nab them. The probe team interrogated three persons to trace the absconding men, appointed informants and used technical skills to nab the two accused, the official added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)