NCP MP Padamsinh Patil, once party chief Sharad Pawar's closest aide, is booked for murder by the CBI. He is accused of killing his own cousin -- Congressman Pawanraje Nimbalkar in 2006.
Nimbalkar handled Patil's political work in Osmanabad and both ran local cooperatives. They, however, fell out over power tussles.
The murder case is a huge blow to Patil's political career, which is already on decline.
A seven-term MLA for Osmanabad, he was handpicked by Pawar for plum ministries serving as a Cabinet minister for Home, Irrigation and Energy.
His first setback came in the form of a corruption scandal exposed by anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare in 2005. The P B Sawant Committee indicted him for siphoning off farmers' money from the Terna Sugar Cooperative money meant for victims of Kargil and the Gujarat earthquake
The scandal left Patil isolated within the party though Sharad Pawar accommodated his son Rana Patil as a Minister of State.
This election, his MP seat was seen as a ticket to his political resurrection, a revival now blocked by yet another murky case.
