NCP MLA Sangram Jagtap (in white) being taken to the local court in Ahmednagar on Sunday

NASHIK: The police on Sunday arrested Ahmednagar city NCP legislator Sangram Jagtap and three others in connection with the murder of two local Shiv Sena leaders on Saturday evening.

The police also named 26 others in connection with the incident, including two other local lawmakers — BJP MLA from Rahuri, Shivaji Kardile, and NCP MLC Arun Jagtap — in the FIR registered at the Kotwali police station of the district. However, none of them has been arrested yet.

The Bhinger police in the district registered a separate FIR against more than 250 persons, including Kardile, for ransacking the office of the Ahmednagar superintendent of police soon after Jagtap’s arrest. The police arrested 22 persons in the ransacking incident.

A local court remanded in police custody the four men allegedly involved in the twin murders till April 12 and the 22 held for the ransacking till April 10.

NCP MLA Sangram Jagtap (in white) being taken to the local court in Ahmednagar on Sunday

NCP MLA among 4 held for murder of 2 Sena leaders

Sanjay Kotkar, deputy Sena chief of the Kedgaon unit of the district, and local party leader Vasant Thube were shot at and stabbed to death by two assailants on a motorcycle in the crowded Shahunagar area on Saturday evening.

The murders happened a little after the results of the local municipal ward by-election in Kedgaon were declared. Vishal Kotkar of the Congress defeated his Sena rival by a slender margin of around 450 votes.

Besides Jagtap, the other three arrested in the case are Bhanudas Kotkar, Balasaheb Kotkar and Sandip Gunjal.

The police have registered cases against all 30 allegedly involved in the twin murders under different sections of the Indian Penal Code, including section 302 (murder).

Senior police officials, including special inspector general of police of the Nashik range, Vinoy Kumar Choubey, are camping in the district as tension prevails in Kedgaon following the murders and Jagtap’s arrest. The police had summoned Jagtap late on Saturday night after the families of the two victims accused him and others of the murders.

Senior Ahmednagar police officials said the initial probe points to Gunjal being one of the two men who shot at and stabbed the Sena leaders.

A bandh organised by the local Sena unit was observed in the district on Sunday. Shops and commercial establishments remained closed. Senior Sena leaders from the state, including Ramdas Kadam and Diwakar Raote , visited the district. They demanded that the state government take stern action against the lawmakers and the others involved in the murders.

