Maharashtra, Oct 26: A police officer accused of raping a woman doctor who died by suicide in Maharashtra’s Satara district has been arrested, officials said on Saturday.
Sub-inspector Gopal Badane surrendered at Phaltan Rural Police Station on Saturday evening, hours after another accused, software engineer Prashant Bankar, was detained from Pune. Both were named in the suicide note left by the 27-year-old government doctor.
The doctor, who hailed from Beed district and was posted at a government hospital in Satara, was found hanging in a hotel room in Phaltan on Thursday night. On her palm, she had written that Badane raped her multiple times while Bankar mentally harassed her.
Police have registered a case of rape and abetment of suicide against both men. Bankar, the landlord’s son at the doctor’s rented accommodation, was sent to four days of police custody by a local court. Officials said the two spoke on the phone shortly before her death.
Badane was suspended from duty after being named in the investigation. Police sources said the doctor had earlier lodged informal complaints about harassment that were never pursued.
The woman’s cremation took place in her native Wadwani tehsil of Beed on Friday night. Her family members have demanded capital punishment for both accused, alleging systemic failure. “She had complained multiple times, but nobody listened,” one relative said, adding that political figures had pressured her to alter autopsy reports.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Ambadas Danve alleged that former BJP MP Ranjitsingh Naik Nimbalkar once tried to pressure the doctor, an allegation Nimbalkar has denied. “There is no truth in this, and my name is being dragged deliberately,” he said.
BJP MLA Suresh Dhas demanded that the unnamed MP mentioned in the allegations also be made an accused in the case.
Records show that the doctor had earlier written to Satara authorities about threats and taunts from police officials over her work. Her cousins, also doctors, alleged she was deliberately assigned post-mortem duties to harass her.
Her uncle told PTI she had taken a Rs 3 lakh loan for her MBBS studies and aspired to pursue an MD degree. “Her father is a farmer, not educated. She wanted to specialise in medicine, ENT, or a non-clinical branch,” he said.
