Devendra Fadnavis non-committal about ousting Munde from ministership

MUMBAI: Despite tremendous pressure from opposition as well as ruling party leaders, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has remained non-committal about removing NCP minister Dhananjay Munde from his ministerial council on account of his name being associated with the Beed sarpanch murder case. The murder, which sent shock waves through the district and state, was allegedly masterminded by Munde’s close aide Walmik Karad.

Fadnavis, who has been declaring that the police will not spare anyone involved in the murder “until they are hanged to death”, on Tuesday said that he did not want to be involved in “the politics of the issue”. “What I’m saying is: give me evidence against anyone and action will be taken. For me, punishment to those involved in Deshmukh’s murder is more important,” he said in response to a demand made by NCP (SP) MLA Sandeep Kshirsagar to evict Munde from his position until investigation in the case was completed.

Kshirsagar is not alone. Many opposition leaders, including Munde’s own party MLA Prakash Solanke, have sought his ouster from the cabinet. Solanke represents Majalgaon, one of the six assembly constituencies that are part of Beed district, and had remarked earlier that Munde had “leased out the guardian minister position of Beed to Karad for the last four years”.

The chief minister chose to make a statement against those who were demanding Munde’s dismissal, saying that politics might be important for them but they would not benefit from it. “I will neither support nor oppose them,” he said. “They are free to do whatever they want. For us, giving justice to Santosh Deshmukh is important, which we will do eventually.”

Karad, who was absconding for over 22 days in an extortion case related to the murder, surrendered before the Pune CID on Tuesday. The opposition has slammed the state government for the police’s failure to apprehend him for so long. “His surrender shows the incompetence of the police,” said NCP (SP) leader and MLA Jitendra Awhad. The party’s working president and Baramati MP Supriya Sule also said she would have been happy if Karad had been arrested by the police.

Fadnavis, on behalf of the government, claimed that the speedy investigation in the case forced Karad to surrender to the police. “We will not allow goondas to rule,” he told reporters. “No one will be allowed to indulge in violence and extortion.”