Two persons, including a police sub-inspector, have been arrested in connection with the alleged death by suicide of a 29-year-old doctor from Satara district in Maharashtra, the Hindustan Times reported.
The doctor, who had been posted at the Phaltan Sub-District Hospital for the last two years, was found dead in a hotel room on Thursday.
In a purported suicide note scribbled on her hand, she accused Prashant Bankar, the son of her landlord, of mental harassment, and Sub-Inspector Gopal Badane of rape, the Hindustan Times reported.
Bankar, a software engineer, was arrested from a farmhouse near Pune on Friday night. He was on Saturday produced before a court in Satara, which sent him to police custody for four days.
Badane was taken into custody after he surrendered at the Phaltan Rural Police Station on Saturday, Satara Superintendent of Police Tushar Doshi was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
The sub-inspector has been suspended from service after his name surfaced during the investigation.
Meanwhile, the doctor’s cousin alleged that she faced pressure from the police and politicians to falsify post-mortem reports, The Hindu reported.
“There was a lot of police and political pressure on her to make wrong post-mortem reports,” the cousin told the newspaper. “She had complained about it multiple times, but it was not taken seriously.”
The incident has triggered a political row in the state.
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Anand Dubey described the case as “heart-wrenching”.
“We request Devendra Fadnavis to question his ministers after the deteriorating state of law and order,” Dubey told ANI. “Such incidents should not take place in future.”
Mumbai Congress President Varsha Gaikwad accused the Maharashtra government of failing to protect women.
“A doctor died by suicide in Satara and named a policeman as having harassed her,” Gaikwad said in a social media post. “If women cannot trust law enforcement officials, what hope is left?”
On Friday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the home portfolio, described the death as deeply tragic..
“Whoever is responsible will face the strictest punishment,” Fadnavis was quoted as saying in Mumbai. “The concerned police officers have already been suspended. I urge the opposition not to politicise this sensitive matter.”
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