Maharashtra, Oct 26: A police sub-inspector accused of raping a woman government doctor who died by suicide in Maharashtra’s Satara district has been arrested, officials said on Saturday.
Sub-inspector Gopal Badane surrendered at the Phaltan Rural Police Station in Satara on Saturday evening and was immediately taken into custody, police said. Earlier in the day, a team from Phaltan had arrested software engineer Prashant Bankar — also named in the doctor’s suicide note — from Pune.
The doctor, a native of Beed district in Marathwada and posted at a government hospital in Satara, was found hanging in a hotel room in Phaltan on Thursday night. Police said she had written a suicide note on her palm, alleging that Badane raped her multiple times and that Bankar mentally harassed her.
A case of rape and abetment of suicide has been registered against both men. Bankar, the son of the doctor’s landlord, was remanded to four days’ police custody by a Satara district court on Saturday.
Officials said the victim had spoken to Bankar on a phone call shortly before taking her life. Badane, who was suspended from service after his name surfaced in the probe, is accused of sexually assaulting the woman repeatedly.
The doctor was cremated in her native Wadwani tehsil of Beed district on Friday night. Her relatives have demanded capital punishment for both accused, alleging that she had repeatedly complained about harassment but her grievances were ignored.
“Political people in Phaltan often asked her to change medical reports as she used to be regularly on autopsy duty,” a relative said. “She had complained multiple times against the SI named in her note, but her complaints were not looked into.”
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Ambadas Danve alleged that former BJP MP Ranjitsingh Naik Nimbalkar had also pressured the doctor earlier. Nimbalkar denied the charge, calling it “baseless” and politically motivated.
BJP MLA Suresh Dhas meanwhile demanded that the MP allegedly involved be named as an accused in the case.
According to an earlier written reply by the doctor to Satara authorities, she had faced threats and taunts from police officials over her work at the sub-district hospital. Her cousins, both doctors, claimed she was assigned post-mortem duties only to harass her.
Her uncle said she had dreams of pursuing an MD degree and was preparing for it. “She had taken a Rs 3 lakh loan for her MBBS, which was still unpaid,” he said. “Her father is a farmer, not educated. She wanted to become an MD in medicine or ENT.”
