The investigation into a missing persons case has led to the Maharashtra police unravelling a blood-curdling crime in the picturesque town of Wai in Satara district where a local doctor has confessed to murdering at least six persons by administering lethal overdoses of medicines.
The accused, Dr. Santosh Pol has revealed to the Wai police that he killed six persons whose victims were five women and a man over the last few years.
While the details remain nebulous, police aver that lust and avarice, especially when threatened with exposure of them, had driven Dr. Pol, who is already being known by his moniker ‘Dr. Death’, to commit the murders.
Suspicions were aroused following the disappearance of a 49-year-old lady, Mangal Jedhe, who also happened to be the president of a local teachers’ association called the Maharashtra Purva Prathmik Shikshika Sevika Sangh (MPPSSS). Jedhe had left Wai for Pune to attend to her daughter's delivery, but had never gotten there.
According to police sources, Dr. Pol was said to have an affair with Jedhe while simultaneously conducting another one with his nurse Jyoti Mandre. When the former chanced upon this, she threatened to expose both Dr. Pol and Ms. Mandre.
Jedhe allegedly had a heated quarrel with Dr. Pol just before her departure for Pune following which Dr. Pol and Ms. Mandre then resolved upon murder.
Dr. Pol and his associates, including Ms. Mandre, allegedly kidnapped Jedhe as she waited at the Wai bus depot and took her to Dr. Pol’s farmhouse around 13 km from Wai.
The doctor and nurse allegedly administered Jedhe with a lethal overdose the next day which killed her.
The duo buried the body at an isolated spot in the farmhouse after which both Pol and Mandre went underground. Jedhe’s organisation demanded an investigation by the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) following which the police located Ms. Mandre who revealed Dr. Pol’s whereabouts in Mumbai.
The Satara police then traced Pol to his hideout in Dadar in central Mumbai and arrested him last week. He was remanded to week-long police custody.
It was here that Dr. Pol broke down during interrogation and confessed to have done away with six persons during the last few years.
“While Ms. Jedhe’s murder took place mid-June, we believe the other crimes date back from 2003,” said Sandeep Patil, Superindent of Police, Satara.
He told his interrogators that five women were buried at his country home, while one male victim’s body had been thrown into a local water reservoir. All the victims were declared ‘missing’ by local authorities. The Wai police said it was trying to recover the other four bodies from Dr. Pol’s farmhouse.
Dr. Pol allegedly admitted to killing Jedhe and burying her at his farmhouse, after which police recovered the victim’s remains.
The other victims have been tentatively identified as Jagabai Pol, Salma Shaikh, Surekha Chikane, Vanita Gaikwad and the man, Nathmal Bhandare. In each case, he is said to have used his medical knowledge to eliminate his victims.
While precise details are yet to emerge, concerned locals have alleged that at least a dozen persons had been reported ‘missing’ from Wai and the villages adjacent to it since 2003 and demanded that the police probe each of them to ascertain whether Dr. Pol had anything to do with it.
