Pune: Three persons were on Monday arrested in connection with the murder of a 38-year-old local BJP leader who was shot and hacked to death allegedly by a group of people in Talegaon Dabhade near here, police said.


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The accused, identified as Bunty alias Shankar Dabhade, Sandip Pachpind and Sanju Pachpind (all local residents), have been arrested under relevant sections of IPC, police said.


"Besides these three accused, we have booked seven to eight people, including the main suspect and criminal on record, Shyam Dabhade, who has been spotted in one of the CCTV footages. A manhunt has been launched to trace the absconding assailants," Additional Superintendent of Police Rajkumar Shinde said.


Sachin Shelke, former president of Talegaon Dabhade Municipal Council, was travelling in his car when assailants waylaid him near a petrol pump yesterday. The attackers asked Shelke to get down from the car and fired a round at him and then attacked him with sharp-edged weapons before fleeing.


The murder was a fallout of previous enmity, police said adding that Shelke and his family members had survived an attack in 2013.


Meanwhile, all the three arrested accused were produced in a local court in Maval tehsil, where they were remanded to police custody till October 24.


Situation in and around Talegaon has been tense and heavy police force have been deployed there.


The absconding accused Shyam Dabhade, who was also suspect in 2010 RTI activist Satish Shetty murder case, was booked in several cases, including extortion, attempt to murder.