An aide of Maharashtra minister Dhananjay Munde who was wanted in an extortion case linked to the murder of a sarpanch in the state’s Beed district surrendered before the Pune Police on Tuesday, PTI reported.

The man, Walmik Karad, posted a video on social media before surrendering claiming that he was being linked to the murder due to political vendetta.

Thousands of people had participated in a silent protest march in Beed town on Saturday to demand Karad’s arrest.

Santosh Deshmukh, the sarpanch of Massajog village, was abducted and killed on December 9 allegedly for opposing an attempt by some persons to extort Rs 2 crore from a windmill company in Beed district.

Deshmukh’s body was found on a road near his village. The post-mortem indicated that he had died because of haemorrhage and shock caused by several injuries, The Indian Express reported.

Four persons were arrested in the matter.

In the video posted before his surrender, Karad said: “I am surrendering before the CID officials in Pune in a fake case registered against me in Kej taluka of Beed district. Those who are involved in Santosh Deshmukh’s case should be punished and hanged to death. My name is being taken in the case due to political vendetta.”

The Opposition, as well as Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Suresh Dhas, have accused Munde, a leader of the Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party faction, of having ties to Karad and have demanded the state minister’s resignation, citing the need for impartiality in the investigation.

Karad, a former Nationalist Congress Party corporator, is a member of the Beed district district planning committee representing the Ajit Pawar faction, according to The Indian Express.

Munde had said earlier that there are “hundreds of workers” who work with him and that Karad was merely one of them.

On December 20, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who holds the state’s home affairs portfolio, ordered a judicial investigation into Deshmukh’s murder.

Fadnavis had also transferred the case to Beed’s district superintendent of police.

Karad has been booked for extortion under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act and would also be charged with Deshmukh’s murder if the investigation could establish his involvement, Fadnavis told the Assembly.