Got offer to conduct ‘encounter’ of sarpanch murder case accused Karad: suspended cop

A senior police official from Beed, however, dismissed Kasle’s claims as baseless and said he should submit a proof of his statements.

Kasle was suspended earlier when he was a sub-inspector in the local cyber crime department.

Deshmukh, the sarpanch of Massajog village in Maharashtra’s 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.

Karad is among the eight persons arrested so far and booked under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

The state Crime Investigation Department (CID) last month filed a more than 1,200 pages chargesheet at a court in Beed in Deshmukh’s murder and two related cases.

Talking to a regional news channel, Kasle claimed some persons had approached him with an offer to carry out the “encounter” of Karad.

“I was given this offer by a team of a few people and I have mentioned their names in the station diary. The offer was only for Walmik Karad and was given to me before I was suspended. I refused, saying I cannot commit such a sin,” he said.

“They make a lump sum offer of Rs 10, 20, 50 crore. A person who can do this is called…like I was with the cyber department and had no connection with this case, but I was made the offer because they knew I have guts,” he claimed.

Referring to the custodial death of Badlapur sexual assault case accused Akshay Shinde, Kasle said the SIT ordered by the Bombay High Court should be of central government, then only truth will come out.

Asked about Kasle’s claims, a senior police official from Beed said, “All the things are baseless. He should submit an evidence for what he is speaking. Whatever he is doing is not in the work ethics.” Kasle has already been suspended and a preliminary enquiry (PE) against him is on. The police have sent a notice to Kasle, but he has not accepted it yet, the official added. PTI AW GK