Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ordered the Additional Director General of CID Maharashtra on Saturday to immediately cancel the gun licenses of those accused in the village sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh murder case as well as confiscate their properties. He has also ordered the Beed Superintendent of Police to immediately conduct a review of all gun licenses issued in Beed so far.

The CM’s action is seen as a reaction to a series of tweets with photographs and videos uploaded by anti-corruption activist Anjali Damania on her X handle featuring the accused as well as associates of those accused in Massajog village sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh murder case.

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Fadnavis has also ordered cancellation of the licenses of all those who feature on the photographs carrying guns, uploaded by anti-corruption activist Anjali Damania, if the guns are indeed real.

Notably, since the past several days, anti-corruption activist Anjali Damania has been tweetbombing the gun culture of Beed district through her X handle and she has uploaded several photographs and videos showing guns are seen in the hands of very young men in Beed.

She also posted on X, a photograph of the son of absconding extortionist Valmik Karad, who is the main accused in the Massajog village sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh murder case, with a gun on his waist.

The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) too has been alleging that “Beed district has become Bihar” even as anti-corruption activist Anjali Damania claimed that Beed has the highest number of weapons licenses in Maharashtra.

According to Anjali Damania, the highest number of licenses have been issued in Beed, Parbhani and Amravati and as many as 1,281 people in Beed district have arms licenses.

Gun licenses are issued only after doing all sorts of verification and the criminal background of applicants is also supposed to be verified.

However, the videos uploaded by Anjali Damania shows young boys walking around in Beed district with guns on their waists. She has uploaded a video of one Kailash Phad who was arrested in Beed three days ago, firing in the air with his gun. The video has gone viral.