Dhananjay Munde resigns amid pressure to quit over aide’s arrest in murder case

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Dhananjay Munde resigned as minister on Tuesday amid mounting pressure on him to put in his papers over the alleged involvement of his aide in a village head’s murder in Maharashtra’s Beed district in December.

People aware of the matter said chief minister Devendra Fadnavis asked Munde to resign after a meeting with his deputy and NCP chief Ajit Pawar on Monday night. The pressure mounted on the government for Munde’s removal after a charge sheet was filed in Santosh Deshmukh’s murder last week, establishing the alleged involvement of the minister’s aide Walmiki Karad.

The pictures and videos of the murder went viral on social media and sparked outrage. Deshmukh was abducted, tortured, and killed on December 9.

People cited above said Fadnavis told Pawar that Munde, 49, a two-term lawmaker from Parli in Beed, had to resign. Munde is believed to have been unwilling to resign and requested Pawar to give him time. Pawar expressed his helplessness leaving Mude with no option but to resign.

NCP functionaries said Munde wanted to explain his side of the story in the state assembly before resigning. But Fadnavis and Pawar turned down his request after initially supporting him.

“Fadnavis was insistent on Munde’s resignation since the arrest of Karad...Pawar and Munde were unwilling and kept convincing him for some more time. When the charge sheet brought the brutality of the murder to the fore, Fadnavis put his foot down and asked for the resignation,” said a Bharatiya Janata Party leader.

Fadnavis and Pawar supported Munde before the charge sheet forced the chief minister to act as the case was hurting the government’s image.