Gopal Badane, cop accused of sexually assaulting Maharashtra doctor, arrested
The doctor, posted at the Phaltan Sub-District Hospital, was found dead in her hotel room in Phaltan on Thursday.
Two suspects, including a police sub-inspector, have been arrested in the death by suicide of a 29-year-old Satara doctor, officers aware of the matter said on Saturday.
The doctor, posted at the Phaltan Sub-District Hospital, was found dead in her hotel room in Phaltan on Thursday.
In a suicide note inscribed on her hand, she accused Prashant Bankar — the first suspect — of mental harassment, and police sub-inspector Gopal Badane —the second suspect — of sexual assault.
Police arrested Bankar, a software engineer and son of the doctor’s landlord, from a farmhouse near Pune on Friday night. However, Badane was taken into custody after he surrendered at the Phaltan Rural Police Station, Satara SP Tushar Doshi said.
According to the police, the doctor and Bankar were in a relationship prior to her death.
The case has triggered outrage across Maharashtra after the doctor’s suicide note surfaced.
In complaints to the police administration, she had also alleged coercion from the Satara police and a member of Parliament, to fudge medical records and autopsy reports so that police could easily secure custody of suspects in various cases, officers aware of the matter said.
On Friday, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis described the doctor’s death as “deeply tragic”. Addressing the media in Mumbai, Fadnavis said, “Whoever is responsible will face the strictest punishment. The concerned police officers have already been suspended. I urge the opposition not to politicise this sensitive matter.”
The investigation into the doctor’s death has revealed that the deceased and Bankar had been close for several months but their relationship soured in recent weeks. A senior police officer said, “Their chats and call records show she was very possessive, and after Bankar started distancing himself, they argued frequently.”
Bankar’s sister, who asked not to be named, claimed the two of them grew close again last month, when Bankar was suffering from dengue and the doctor treated him. “A day before her suicide, she made frequent calls to Bankar. We have handed over screenshots of the calls and messages to the police,” she said.
Police said that after the fallout, Bankar’s father had allegedly asked sub-inspector Badane to intervene.
The case has taken a political turn after it emerged that the deceased doctor, in her earlier submission to a committee investigating her harassment charges, had claimed she was asked by the personal assistants of an MP to “cooperate” in official work.
Although she did not name the MP, opposition leaders have accused former BJP MP from Madha, Ranjitsinh Naik Nimbalkar, of pressuring her. Naik, however, refuted the allegations as “baseless claims”.
