Police sub-inspector (PSI) Gopal Badane, accused in the alleged suicide of a woman government doctor in Maharashtra’s Satara district, was arrested on Saturday evening, hours after a co-accused was detained earlier in the day.
Earlier on Saturday morning, a team from Phaltan police arrested software engineer Prashant Bankar, one of the two men named in the woman doctor’s suicide note, from Pune. Later, PSI Badane arrived at Phaltan Rural Police Station and surrendered, said Satara Superintendent of Police Tushar Doshi.
Bankar, accused of mentally harassing the victim and now facing an abetment of suicide charge, was produced before a Satara district court, which sent him to four days’ police custody.
Doctor Named Two Men In Suicide Note Written On Palm
The woman doctor, a native of Beed district in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region, was posted at a government hospital in Satara and was found hanging in a hotel room in Phaltan town on Thursday night.
In a suicide note written on her palm, she alleged that PSI Badane raped her multiple times, while Bankar mentally harassed her. A case of rape and abetment of suicide was registered against both men at the Phaltan police station.
According to the police, Bankar is the son of the landlord of the house where the doctor resided. Investigators said she had spoken to him on the phone shortly before taking her life. PSI Badane was suspended from service after his name surfaced in the probe.
The doctor was cremated on Friday night at her native village in Beed’s Wadwani tehsil, where her relatives demanded capital punishment for the accused.
Family Alleges Neglect, Political Pressure
Relatives of the deceased claimed that she had repeatedly complained of harassment, but her grievances were ignored by authorities. One family member alleged she was pressured to alter medical reports at the sub-district hospital where she worked.
“Political people in Phaltan often asked her to change medical reports, as she was regularly on autopsy duty. She had complained multiple times against the PSI named in the note, but her complaints were not looked into,” the relative told a news channel.
BJP MLA Suresh Dhas demanded that the Member of Parliament who allegedly pressured the doctor be made an accused in the case, though he did not name any leader.
A purported letter submitted earlier this year by the doctor to Satara authorities mentioned threats from police officials and taunts related to crime in her native Beed district.
Two of her cousins, also doctors, alleged that she was deliberately assigned repeated post-mortem duties to harass her. Her family said she was preparing for an MD (Doctor of Medicine) course and had an unpaid education loan of Rs 3 lakh from her MBBS studies.
“Her father is a farmer and not an educated man. I am a teacher and took her to Beed for schooling. She did not want to stop at MBBS but wanted to pursue MD in medicine, ENT, or a non-clinical branch,” her uncle told PTI.
