Maharashtra's 'Dr Death' confesses to killing six people; illicit relations and greed for gold likely motive

Satara: In a sensational confession, a doctor, who was arrested late on Saturday, has told the Maharashtra Police that he had murdered six persons between 2003 and 2016 by administering lethal overdoses of medicines.

The Police have found four bodies from the farmhouse of Dr Santosh Pol, a practising doctor from Wai town in Satara district in western Maharashtra.

Dr Pol, dubbed "Dr Death", was arrested last week on the charges of kidnapping and killing a 49-year-old aanganwadi worker.

The 41-year-old Pol`s associate, nurse Jyoti Mandre, has also been arrested. Both have been sent to police custody by a court. The case has stunned Maharashtra.

"We are trying to find out where the fifth victim`s body was disposed off and also one victim whose body was thrown into a water reservoir," Satara Superintendent of Police Sandip Patil told the media on the stunning developments in the case.

 

The persons whom Pol allegedly killed comprised five women and one man.

Among the victims were an orphan woman, Salma Shaikh, who was missing from January this year. Another, Vanita Gaikwad, belonged to a jeweller`s family and went missing in July 2006. 

A majority of the victims either worked with him or came in contact as patients.

On the motive behind the murder of five women and a man, Patil said that illicit relations and greed for gold and money might have prompted Pol to execute these killings.

"We shall investigate all the missing persons` cases in and around Wai since 2003, the hospitals where he worked, question other patients and employees, tackle all possible angles," Patil asserted.

Meanwhile, a police team was busy digging Pol`s sprawling farmhouse land for possibly more bodies.

Patil said that skeletal remains found would be sent for forensic analysis to match them with the missing persons. 

Pol, described as an `Electro-Homoeopath`, practised in some local hospitals and at his farmhouse, 13 km on the outskirts of the quaint Wai town, at the base of the twin hill stations of Mahabaleshwar-Panchgani, around 175 km south of Mumbai.

Pol's crime came to light after the suspicious disappearance of 49-year old Mangal Jedhe, the president of Maharashtra Purva Prathmik Shikshika Sevika Sangh (MPPSSS).

A probe has revealed that Pol and his men allegedly abducted Jedhe while she was en route to Pune on June 16.

“Jedhe went missing after she threatened Pol that she would expose his shady activities. Our information is that she was abducted from the Wai bus station by Pol and his nurse Jyoti Mandre and taken to his farmhouse where she was killed after administering an overdose of some medicines,” The Pioneer quoted MPPSSS general secretary Shaukat Pathan as saying.

Pol and his nurse secretly buried Jedhe's body near the farmhouse a day after allegedly killing her.

Wai police officer Padmakar Ghanvat said investigations revealed that prior to leaving for Pune, she was in touch with Pol and both had a bitter fight when she threatened to reveal his activities.

Pol has confessed that he kidnapped Jedhe from the Wai Bus Depot and eliminated her the following day by administering an overdose of a lethal medicine.

Widening its net in the case, Satara police is now probing the authenticity of the alleged serial killer's medical degree too.