India, April 3 -- Deputy chief minister and Nationalist Congress Party president Ajit Pawar on Wednesday warned party leaders against recruiting people with a criminal background in Beed, which has witnessed a massive public outcry over the brutal murder of a sarpanch, Santosh Deshmukh, in December.

Pawar, who is also the guardian minister for Beed, visited the district for the first time since the NCP's Dhananjay Munde resigned as a cabinet minister on March 3. Munde was forced to resign after the police named his close aide and local strongman Walmik Karad as one of the main accused in the murder case.

Munde, who is a two-term MLA from the Parli assembly constituency in Beed and is considered a close aide of Pawar, has maintained a lo...