Maharashtra Police
NEW DELHI: In a significant development, police on Saturday arrested sub-inspector Gopal Badane, the second accused in the suicide case of a woman doctor from Maharashtra’s Satara district, according to a PTI report. Badane’s arrest came just hours after the arrest of Prashant Bankar, a software engineer and the son of the doctor’s landlord, who is also an accused in the case. Bankar was produced before a court and remanded to four days of police custody.”Badane landed at the Phaltan rural police Station and surrendered,” said Satara SP Tushar Doshi.The deceased doctor, originally from Beed district in the Marathwada region of central Maharashtra, was posted at a government hospital in Satara district. She was found dead in a hotel room in Phaltan town on Thursday night. According to police, she had checked into the hotel late the previous evening, as her rented accommodation was located far from the hospital.In a note reportedly written on her palm, she accused Badane of repeated sexual assault and Bankar of mental harassment. Satara police have registered a case of abetment of suicide against both.The sub-inspector has been suspended from service after his name emerged during the investigation, officials said. Meanwhile, the doctor was cremated on Friday night at her native village in Wadwani tehsil of Beed district. Her family members have demanded capital punishment for those accused in the case.The case has also taken a political turn, with Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Ambadas Danve alleging that former BJP MP Ranjitsingh Naik Nimbalkar had “pressured” the woman doctor on an earlier occasion. Nimbalkar, however, denied the accusation, calling it “baseless” and claiming that his name was being deliberately dragged into the matter. Meanwhile, BJP MLA Suresh Dhas has demanded that the MP who allegedly tried to pressure the doctor be made an accused in the case, though he did not name anyone specifically.
