Satara Doctor's Suicide: Two Arrested, Including Cop, Over Harassment and Assault Claims

Mumbai: Two suspects, including a police sub-inspector, have been arrested in connection with the suicide of a 29-year-old doctor from Satara district. This information was given by officials familiar with the matter on Saturday.

Suicide note

In the suicide note written on her palm, the doctor had accused Prashant Bunker of mental harassment and Sub-Inspector Gopal Badane of sexual exploitation. This doctor posted at Phaltan Sub-District Hospital was found dead in a hotel room in Phaltan on Thursday.

Police arrested Prashant Bunkar, who is the son of a software engineer and the doctor's landlady, from a farmhouse near Pune on Friday night. Meanwhile, Sub-Inspector Gopal Badane surrendered at the Phaltan rural police station. Satara SP Tushar Doshi gave this information. According to the police, the doctor and Bunker had an earlier relationship. After the suicide note surfaced, anger has spread across Maharashtra.

Family member's pressure

The doctor, in her complaints to the police administration, had also alleged that a member of the Satara police and an MP had pressured her to manipulate medical records and postmortem reports to ease the custody of suspects in various cases. On Friday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis described the doctor's death as "deeply saddening." Speaking to the media in Mumbai, he said, "The person responsible will get the strictest punishment. The police officers concerned have been suspended. I appeal to the opposition not to politicize this sensitive matter."

Health condition 

The investigation revealed that the doctor and Bunker had been close for several months, but their relationship deteriorated in recent weeks. A senior police officer said, "Chat and call records show that the doctor was very possessive. When Bunker started maintaining distance, the two would have frequent fights."

Bunker's sister (who spoke on condition of anonymity) claimed that when Bunker had dengue last month, the doctor treated him, and the two had become close again. "The day before the suicide, the doctor made repeated calls to Bunker. We have handed over screenshots of the calls and messages to the police," he said. Police say that after there was a rift in the relationship, Bunker's father had allegedly asked Sub-Inspector Badane to intervene.

A political matter

The matter became political when it was revealed that the doctor, in her statement to the committee probing her harassment complaints, had said that an MP's personal assistant had pressured her to "cooperate in official work." Although she did not take the name of the MP, the opposition has accused former Madha BJP MP Ranjitsinh Naik Nimbalkar of putting pressure on her. Naik has described these allegations as "baseless."