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Pankaja Munde
Social activist Anjali Damania has demanded that Maharashtra ministers Pankaja Munde and Dhananjay Munde resign till a probe is underway into the brutal murder of a village sarpanch in Beed district. Talking to a news channel on Monday, Damania claimed that Munde cousins very well know Walmik Karad, an accused in an extortion case linked to the sarpanch's murder. BJP leader Pankaja Munde is the state environment and climate change minister, while her cousin Dhananjay Munde, a leader of the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), holds charge of the food, civil supplies and consumer protection department. According to police, Massajog village sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh was abducted and killed on December 9 allegedly for opposing an extortion bid by some individuals who had demanded money from a windmill company in Beed district. Four persons have been arrested so far in connection with the murder. Opposition parties and a BJP MLA have accused Dhananjay Munde of having clos
Ahead of Maharashtra assembly polls, BJP leader Pankaja Munde on Saturday reached out to Dalits and Other Backward Classes (OBC), vowing to take cognisance if they are troubled. Munde, who lost the Lok Sabha polls on her home turf Beed district, the epicentre of Maratha protests led by activist Manoj Jarange, was addressing her annual Dussehra rally at Sawargaon Ghat, the birthplace of Sant Bhagwanbaba, a saint of her Vanjari community. State agriculture minister and her cousin Dhananjay Munde and Laxman Hake, who had protested opposing any potential dilution of the OBC reservation, were among those who spoke at the rally. Munde expressed her concerns over the rising caste schism within society. If a vehicle hits someone, people ask the caste of the driver. People want to know the caste of a person who has committed brutality against a small child and killed her. We don't want such a society, she said. The BJP national secretary warned that they would take cognisance if the poor,
A 38-year old truck driver who made a video claiming he would be "no more" if BJP leader Pankaja Munde lost the Lok Sabha polls from Beed was crushed under a bus on Friday night in what police suspect may be a case of suicide. The incident took place on Ahmedpur-Andhori road near Borgaon Pati at around 9pm and the victim has been identified as Sachin Kondiba Munde (38), a resident of Yestar in Latur's Ahmedpur, the Kingaon police station official said. "The bus driver has been arrested, while a probe is underway to find out if it was an accident or a case of suicide. It happened when the Yalderwadi night halt bus stopped at Borgaon Pati. Sachin was standing behind the bus and was crushed to death when it reversed," he added. The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation bus has been confiscated as part of the probe, Assistant Inspector Bahuasaheb Khandare of Kingaon police station said. The deceased, who is unmarried and lived with his parents and brother, had released a video .