Nurse Jyoti Mandre, who allegedly aided Sataras Dr Death, was to be his next victim.
Two open pits in the farmhouse of Satara's Dr Death have led the police to believe that Dr Santosh Pol, alleged to have killed six people so far, intended to kill at least two more people.
Preliminary questioning has revealed that one of them was supposed to be his alleged accomplice and love interest Jyoti Mandre (25).
A top police official overseeing the probe into the serial killings told mid-day that Pol had begun to worry that his accomplice may rat on him and decided to kill her. The other pit, the investigators suspect, was for a man with whom Pol had a financial dispute.
Death pitsThe two pits, five to six feet deep, were found a few feet away from the place where Pol had allegedly buried four of his victims.
"The probe team was shocked to find the two open pits," said the senior official. "When questioned, Dr Pol admitted Jyoti was next. While investigating Mangal Jedhe's disappearance, Call Data Records showed us the last caller was Jyoti and we decided to call her for questioning."
According to the police, Jyoti was terrified on being summoned to the police station and drilled over Jedhe's disappearance.
After Pol's arrest, they interrogated the two together. Dr Pol said he had intended to eliminate Jyoti as he feared she may get him arrested for Jedhe's murder.
The police said Dr Pol had even repeatedly told Jyoti that she should set herself on fire if investigators came looking for her. The police added that he had told her he would administer her a special injection that would make her immune to the pain.
Cop speakInspector General of Police (Kolhapur Range) Vishwas Nangre Patil told mid-day, "What we suspect is he planned to kill Jyoti also with lethal injection with this ploy and bury her in one of the pits."
When asked who the second pit was for, another official said, "We have found Dr Pol had a financial dispute with a person and was planning to eliminate him. We have to corroborate this and will call the said person to record his statement."
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)