Police have arrested Sub-Inspector Gopal Badane and software engineer Prashant Bankar in connection with the suicide of a woman government doctor from Satara district, Maharashtra.
According to police, Badane surrendered at the Phaltan Rural Police Station on Saturday evening and was immediately taken into custody. Earlier that morning, police had arrested Bankar from Pune. The doctor had mentioned both of them in her suicide note.
Bankar, accused of mentally harassing the woman, was produced before a Satara court, which sent him to police custody for four days. He is also facing charges of abetment of suicide.
The woman doctor, originally from Beed district, was posted at a government hospital in Satara. She was found hanging in a hotel room in Phaltan on Thursday night.
In her suicide note, written on her palm, she alleged that Sub-Inspector Badane raped her several times, while Bankar mentally harassed her. Following this, police registered a case of rape and abetment of suicide against both accused.
According to officials, Bankar is the son of the landlord of the house where the doctor was living. Police also said that she had spoken to him on the phone shortly before taking her life.
After his name appeared in the investigation, Sub-Inspector Badane was suspended from duty.
The doctor’s last rites were performed on Friday night at her village in Wadwani tehsil, Beed. Her relatives have demanded death penalty for those responsible.
Family members alleged that the doctor had complained several times about harassment, but no one acted on her complaints. One relative said she was pressured by political figures to change medical reports during autopsy work at the hospital. They also claimed she was regularly assigned post-mortem duties only to trouble her.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Ambadas Danve accused former BJP MP Ranjitsingh Naik Nimbalkar of having pressured the doctor earlier. However, Nimbalkar denied the allegation, calling it false and politically motivated. Meanwhile, BJP MLA Suresh Dhas demanded that the MP allegedly involved should also be made an accused, though he did not name anyone directly.
Documents show that the doctor had earlier told district authorities that some police officials threatened and taunted her because of her work and her background from Beed district.
Her family said she had dreams of studying further and wanted to do an MD in medicine or ENT. Her uncle mentioned that she had taken a loan of ₹3 lakh for her MBBS studies, which was still unpaid. “Her father is a farmer and not well-educated. She wanted to make him proud and continue her studies,” he said.
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