The fatal prescription of Maha’s Dr Death

So far the Maharashtra police have read only madness in the prescription of ‘Dr Death’ Santosh Pol, arrested last week for allegedly killing six persons, including two women. Pol has purportedly written a letter congratulating the police for catching him. “If you ask me why I am doing all this, then the question should be asked to the corrupt officials from the (police) department and the dormant society between 2003 and 2016,” he wrote.

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Investigators are trying to find out if Pol had any role in the disappearance of 20-25 persons in Wai (Satara) since 2003 when he allegedly committed his first murder.

Pol’s arrest on August 11 was in the murder of Mangala Jedhe in June this year. Jedhe, 49, had left her home on June 15 to visit her daughter in Pune who had recently delivered a baby. But Jedhe did not make it to Pune. The family waited for almost a day and sought to file a complaint of kidnapping only to be rebuffed by the police. Mangala was president of Maharashtra Purva Prathamik Shikshan Sevika Sangh, an organization representing aanganwadi workers which had highlighted corruption in mid-day meals programme in pre-primary schools. With pressure from the MPPSSS, the Maharashtra government agreed to an inquiry by the state Criminal Investigations Department.

The probe revealed that Jedhe was in regular contact with a quack, Santosh Pol, and his nurse Jyoti Mandre, 25. Known as an RTI activist in Wai, Pol was feared by the local police and petty bureaucrats for filing corruption cases. Having got several of them transferred or sacked in the past, the local police tended to give the “doctor” a wide berth.

The police say Pol and his nurse associate Jyoti Mandre chose to go underground. While Mandre stayed put at her parents’ home, Pol moved to Mumbai. The cops got to the nurse first. Her brother was also arm-twisted into joining the investigators in the hunt for Pol. With the investigators prodding them, the brother-sister convinced the ‘doctor’ that it was safe to meet them in Mumbai. When Pol showed up, he was immediately nabbed and brought to Wai. The Police say both Pol and his nurse picked up Jedhe and drove her to the former’s poultry farm 13 km away where they murdered her by injecting her with a heavy dose of an anesthetic. The two then allegedly buried their victim in the poultry farm constructed illegally on government land.

Pol holds a certificate in electro-magnetic therapy, but practised illegally as a doctor. He has reportedly confessed to have killed five more persons. Police say, Jedhe, herself may have been bumped off because she may have been aware of at least some of the doctor’s past crimes. Pol also told police that he was having an affair with both Mandre and Jedhe and that the latter was jealous of the younger woman.

Pol also attributed different motives for the murder of each of his victims. “Dr Death”, as he has been named, told the police that he first murdered his patient Kisan Chikane, 30, way back in 2003. Pol reportedly told the police that he killed the woman in order to steal her gold jewellery. He body was the first to be buried on Pol’s poultry farm.

Another victim was Nathmal Bhandare, a gold jeweller, who lived in Pol’s building and was allegedly killed last year. Apparently, Bhandare lived alone and trusted the ‘doctor’ with information about his jewellery business. Bhandare's body was allegedly dumped in a dam, the police said. Pol then allegedly killed his nurse Salma Shaikh, an orphan, who he had taken under his wing a few years ago. 

The police say Pol did not even spare his own relatives. One of them, a widow named Janabai Pol, who depended on the doctor to help out with her property matter, too, was bumped off with an anesthetic. Santosh Pol went on to take control of her property, Janabai’s daughter Pallavi told reporters in Wai. Pallavi added that the police simply did not take cognizance of the fact her mother was last seen at Pol’s clinic.