Nine people have been arrested for the murder of former councillor Mangesh Kalokhe in Raigad, with defeated NCP candidate Urmila Devkar named as the prime accused.
The police in Maharashtra’s Raigad have arrested nine people in the past two days in connection with the killing of Mangesh Kalokhe, a former councillor and the husband of newly elected Shiv Sena Khopoli councillor Mansi Kalokhe, last week.
The primary accused is the rival Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate Urmila Devkar, who lost to Mansi by 700 votes in the recently concluded municipal council polls.
The police have also named the Raigad district NCP president, Sudhakar Ghare, the party’s local spokesperson, and three others as wanted accused in the Mangesh Kalokhe murder case.
On his part, Ghare has claimed that he was headed to Ahmedabad for a function when the murder took place on December 26, and was not linked to it in any way.
The local police began an investigation into the murder, and formed 25 teams to nab the accused. Eventually, their probe led them to NCP’s Urmila Devkar, her husband Ravindra, their sons Dhanesh and Darshan, and some party supporters.
A police officer said Mangesh Kalokhe was returning home on a bike after dropping his daughter off at school at around 7 am last Friday, when the accused, who was waiting for him in a black car, stopped him and attacked him with swords, a sickle, and an axe, which led to his death.
The family alleged that Mangesh informed the local police about threats he faced from NCP rivals, but no action was taken.
Last week, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde visited Mansi, and promised that the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) would be invoked against those involved in the murder.
Soon after the murder came to light, Shiv Sena leaders protested, saying that it was a political murder planned at the behest of some NCP leaders.
Mangesh Kalokhe’s family members have also sought action against a local police officer who they said did not take any action even after Kalokhe approached him, saying he faced a threat from the NCP rival. They had also threatened him on December 25, his family said.