The cousin of the deceased doctor alleged she was under sustained political and police pressure to forge postmortem and fitness reports for over a year.
The family has demanded an SIT probe with an external woman officer, citing fears of local police influence and procedural lapses after her death.
Police have arrested sub-inspector Gopal Badane and software engineer Prashant Bankar, both named in the doctor’s suicide note, for abetment of suicide.
The cousin of a woman doctor who allegedly died by suicide in Satara has called for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe, claiming that she has faced “immense political and police pressure” for over a year and was forced to falsify postmortem and fitness reports.
According to ANI, the cousin claimed that the deceased had been subjected to harassment for more than a year and was being pressured to manipulate official reports.
“She was under a lot of political pressure for the last year. Medical staff at the hospital were also involved. Everyone forced her to make wrong postmortem reports and forge fitness certificates. She was being forced to perform more and more postmortems despite other officers being present at the hospital,” the cousin said.
Raising concerns over the handling of her body, the cousin alleged procedural lapses after her death. “When she died, there was no one to perform her postmortem until 6 am. They brought her dead body from her residence to the hospital in our absence. All this should have happened in front of the family members,” the cousin said.
The cousin also said that they suspect that another suicide note might exist, alleging that the doctor had been documenting her distress and complaints in writing.
“We believe that when her dead body was taken to the hospital, she must have left behind another suicide note. She fought hard and wrote 4-page complaint letters. She cannot die with just a little note on her palm,” the cousin said.
They have demanded that an SIT investigation be conducted in the presence of a woman officer from outside Maharashtra, alleging that “state police officers can try to influence the investigation.”
Police have arrested sub-inspector Gopal Badane in connection with the alleged suicide, officials said.
Badane surrendered at the Phaltan Rural Police Station in Satara on Saturday evening, following which he was arrested, district Superintendent of Police Tushar Doshi said.
Earlier, on Saturday morning, a team from the Phaltan police arrested software engineer Prashant Bankar, whom the doctor had named along with Badane in her suicide note, from Pune.
Bankar, accused of mentally harassing the victim and facing an abetment of suicide charge, was produced on Saturday before a Satara district court, which sent him to police custody for four days.
The doctor, hailing from Beed district in the Marathwada region of central Maharashtra and posted at a government hospital in Satara district, was found hanging in a hotel room in Phaltan town on Thursday night.
With inputs from ANI and PTI.
