A legislator of the Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra was among four people arrested on Sunday in connection with the murder of two Shiv Sena leaders in Ahmednagar district the previous evening, the Hindustan Times reported. The Ahmednagar Police have booked 31 people so far, including the arrested MLA Sangram Jagtap.
Shiv Sena’s deputy city head Sanjay Kotkar and local member Vasant Anand Thube were shot point blank on Saturday by two men on a motorcycle.
“The CCTV of the area is being scoured and we are in the process of identifying the shooters,” a police official told PTI earlier. According to the police, the incident took place around 6 pm. However, their bodies lay on the road for hours as people were afraid to report the crime, according to the Hindustan Times.
Shop owners downed their shutters amid stray incidents of stone-pelting. “There are too many people gathering in the area at the moment and I cannot comment on anything,” Inspector Abhay Parmar of Kotwali police station told the newspaper. Many vehicles were also damaged in the stone-pelting, The Hindu reported. Shiv Sena members later blocked the Pune-Ahmednagar bypass road.
The murders took place hours after the result of the civic bye-poll to Kedgaon was announced. Congress’ Vishal Kotkar defeated Shiv Sena nominee Vijay Pathare by only 454 votes. Dilip Satpute, the party’s Ahmednagar unit chief, blamed other party leaders for the murders. “Leaders of some other parties have planned these murders due to the widespread support the Sena received in the Kedgaon bypoll,” he told PTI.
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