Mumbai/IBNS: Maharashtra's Food & Civil Supplies Minister Dhananjay Munde resigned on Tuesday after massive outrage over the killing of a sarpanch of a village in Beed, who was kidnapped, beaten with rods, and tortured for hours only to die on December 9.

An investigation into the murder has revealed that he was tortured brutally.

The incident has forced state minister Dhananjay Munde to resign amid outrage over the killing that allegedly involved his top aide.

The probe found that sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh was killed as he had tried to stop an extortion attempt targeting a windmill energy firm operating in the region.

The mastermind behind the murder was Munde's aide Walmik Karad.

Avaada, a Mumbai-based green energy company, had been working on a project in Beed's Massajog village and adjoining districts in what was seen as an economic boost over the past few years, NDTV reported.

However, local criminals have sensed an opportunity in the project and indulged in extortion bids and kidnappings.

In May last year, six months before Deshmukh's murder, Sudarshan Ghule, who runs a crime syndicate in Beed, kidnapped Sunil Shinde, a project officer with Avaada. He later registered a police complaint.

According to police, another accused in the murder case, Vishnu Chate, had called Avaada officials on the behest of Munde's aide and local political strongman Walmik Karad and demanded Rs. 2 crore. The officials were threatened that the company would be forced to wind up operations if they did not pay up.

Fearing that these extortion attempts would stop Avaada and similar other firms from continuing developmental work, Santosh Deshmukh was determined to stop this.

On December 6, three days before the murder, Ghule and others beat up some Avaada employees at its local office. Santosh Deshmukh and others reached the spot and tried to stop them.

According to police, the accused felt Santosh Deshmukh was coming in the way of their plans and decided to eliminate him. Walmik Karad, named the mastermind in the murder case, allegedly asked the other accused to get rid of whoever came in the way of the extortion bid, according to an NDTV report.

Deshmukh was threatened several times. When nothing worked, he was abducted and killed on December 9.

Police found that Ghule, Karad and Vishnu Chate were in touch with each other before and after Deshmukh's murder.