Accused Pune-based software engineer Prashant Bankar, who was arrested on Saturday in connection with the alleged suicide of a 29-year-old female government doctor in Maharashtra’s Satara district after the extradition of a co-accused, alleged that the doctor harassed him by pressuring him to marry her and engage in physical relationship, police said.
The banker was one of the two men mentioned by the doctor in her suicide.
“We called him and told him to surrender. His social media records and call details were given to the police. My brother never called the doctor. Instead, it was the doctor who called him repeatedly and harassed him,” TOI quoted the technician’s brother as saying.
The banker’s sister said, “Last month, my brother came to Phaltan to recover from a dengue infection. The doctor treated him and they exchanged numbers. She proposed to him about 15 days ago. He rejected the proposal. She looked tense during Diwali, but we thought it was work-related. She was like family to us and our mother treated her like her own daughter.”
“A large number of chats and call recordings between the accused and the deceased have been found in which they talk about stress, coercion etc.,” a police officer said, according to a TOI report.
The doctor was cremated at her native village in Wadwani tehsil, Beed on Friday evening. Her relatives are demanding the death penalty for the accused. The relative told the news channel that she complained of harassment several times but her complaints were ignored.
Another relative alleged that the victim was pressured to change medical reports at the district hospital where she worked. “Phaltan politicians often asked her to change the medical reports as she used to undergo post-mortem regularly. She complained several times to the PSI (said in the memo) but her complaints were not investigated,” the relative added, according to a PTI report.
‘No one will be spared’
“This is a very serious issue. A young doctor wrote her suicide note on her hand before committing suicide. It is very unfortunate and the government, which immediately intervened, suspended the police officials concerned and arrests are also being made. No one will be spared. Strict action will be taken… Politicizing such a sensitive issue is very insensitive,” ANI quoted Maharashtra Chief Minister Faradnavis as saying Devendravis.
Meanwhile, “The court sent the technician to four-day police custody till October 28,” Satara SP Tushar Doshi said.
