MLAs of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP have demanded the resignation of Maharashtra Food and Civil Supplies Minister Dhananjay Munde and have conveyed their demand to NCP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, sources said on Friday.

They said the party legislators are demanding the resignation due to Munde’s closeness to Valmik Karad, who is an accused in the murder of Massajog village sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh.

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Ajit Pawar-led MLAs are wary of losing the support of the Maratha caste group if they are seen favouring Dhananjay Munde, who happens to be an OBC Vanjari caste leader, sources said.

MLA Prakash Solanke who is from Ajit Pawar’s NCP has also demanded that Dhananjay Munde should resign until the investigation into the murder is completed.

“Valmik Karad is a close associate of Dhananjay Munde. Dhananjay Munde should step down from the ministerial post until the investigation is complete and the accused is punished, otherwise he must be sacked,” Solanke said.

In a related development, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena leader and Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council Ambadas Danve said in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar on Friday that trials in both the murder case and the related extortion case, in which Valmik Karad, a close associate of food and civil supplies minister Dhananjay Munde, has been arrested, must be conducted outside Beed district.

“Three of the accused are still absconding. What about them? I have information that the arrested accused (Valmik Karad) may have contacted the absconding men. Most police officers probing the case are from Beed and have political connections.

Karad was in the area where the police complaint was initially not being registered. So, I demand that the trial in this case must be conducted out of Beed district,” Danve said.

“I had alleged earlier during the winter session of the Maharashtra assembly at Nagpur itself that Valmik Karad was staying at a farm house near Nagpur. Now investigations have arrived at the same conclusion that Valmik Karad was indeed there.

So, whatever I had alleged has turned out to be true. Valmik Karad was in Nagpur but who exactly had he come to meet in Nagpur? Somebody did not attend the winter session for three days. Why was he missing from the winter session and where did he go missing,” Danve said.

The links between Valmik Karad and Dhananjay Munde are very old. They are both two sides of the same coin. It is a situation where Valmik Karad used to give orders to top officials. Karad’s orders were as good as Dhananjay Munde’s orders in Beed district,” Danve said.