Beed sarpanch murder | Autopsy reveals 56 injury marks on body: Report

Police investigation and the post-mortem report in the Beed sarpanch murder case have brought to the fore the gruesome manner in which Santosh Deshmukh was murdered on December 9.

A 3.5 feet-long gas cylinder pipe with iron wires around it, knuckle dusters and wooden batons are some of the weapons recovered by the Maharashtra CID in connection with the case, as per a report in The Indian Express. The police suspect these weapons were used to torture and murder Deshmukh.

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Video retrieved from mobile phone

According to the police, the initial post-mortem report revealed that there were 56 injury marks on Deshmukh’s body. The police said they have also retrieved a video from the mobile phone of the accused in which they can be seen brutally assaulting the victim.

A police officer said that the gas cylinder pipe with iron wires had blood stains “which suggests that it was used to beat up the victim”. “We also recovered an iron knuckle punch, wooden baton and other weapons which were used for the assault. We have also recovered six Registration Certificate (RC) books from the vehicles along with two-three mobile phones and ATM cards,” the officer told The Indian Express.

An official who oversaw the medical examination told the daily, “It looked like he was beaten repeatedly in the same place with the hard and blunt objects leading to blunt injuries all over the body. There were contusions and abrasions everywhere on the body.”

History of violent crime

Significantly, the investigation have also brought to the fore the fact that the accused in the case have a history of violent crime. Sudarshan Ghule, one of the key accused arrested on Saturday, has at least 10 pending criminal cases registered against him including that of murder, attempted murder, extortion, abduction, rioting, trespassing, criminal intimidation, trespassing, assault and other crimes.

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Accused Pratik Ghule, Krushna Andhale and Mahesh Kedar also have at least five cases each registered against them for heinous crimes such as attempted murder, extortion, rioting, criminal intimidation, abduction, rioting, trespassing, among others.

Walmik Karad, who is said to be close to Maharashtra minister Dhananjay Munde and is allegedly linked to Deshmukh’s murder, has 15 criminal cases against him. These include cases like attempted murder, extortion, cheating, forgery, rioting, unlawful assembly, etc.