Maharashtra's 'Dr Death' Posed As Protector Of Women, Then Preyed On Them

For 13 years, no one suspected the secrets buried in the farmhouse of Satara's Doctor Death, Santosh Pol. Now, all kinds of skeletons are tumbling out of his closet and farmhouse.

The alleged quack was arrested on August 13, after he confessed to murdering six people by injecting them with lethal overdoses of drugs, giving rise to the moniker Doctor Death. Four of the badly composed bodies were dug out of his farmhouse on Monday.
 As a self-proclaimed doctor and anti-corruption activist, Pol tried to pass himself off as a do-gooder, taking young, vulnerable women under his wing and helping them in times of desperate need. Nobody seemed to notice that each of the women under his care would disappear without explanation, never to be seen again.

It was after one such woman - social worker Mangala Jedhe - went missing that the police began to join the dots and caught on to Pol's involvement. At first, Pol played it cool and denied any connection with her disappearance.

But when the police showed him records of frequent calls between him and the victim, he gave up and confessed. Pol gave the police chilling details of how he killed not one, but six victims in cold blood, either for lust or greed.

6 victims too many

On June 15, Pol's sixth and final victim, Jedhe went missing from her home in Velang, Satara. She was the president of the local anganwadi and lived there alone, while her husband and college-going son live in Mumbai.

"My mother had said she was on her way to Pune for my sister's delivery, but she never turned up. We went to Wai police station and registered a missing complaint, but kept insisting on a kidnapping case. For a week, the police did not give us a positive response, but we knew it had to be an abduction - my mother was not the kind of person to leave home and we did not have any family problems," said her son Pramod.

The investigation showed that Pol and Jedhe had known each other since 1998. The police found that the two had made several calls to each other before her disappearance, and they began to question Pol.

One of the officers said that Pol confessed to luring Jedhe with the promise of R2 lakh for her daughter's delivery. Cops suspect that Pol decided to eliminate her as she was aware of his hand in the past five murders and had started blackmailing him.

Pol took the help of his girlfriend Jyoti Mandare - a nurse - to inject Jedhe with an overdose of anaesthesia, and then buried her body on his farm in Dhom village. Pol wanted the police and Mangala's family to believe she is alive and was moving around within the region. Soon, Inspector Padmakar Ghanwat got information that Pol and Jyoti had kidnapped and murdered Mangal. So police teams started searching for them. They laid a trap and nabbed Jyoti in Wai on August 10. Then, around 2 am on August 14, the Satara police team nabbed Pol at Dadar in Mumbai.

Cop speak

Sanjay Patil, superintendent of Satara police He added, "In order to kill Jedhe, he had hired an earthmover to dig a 10-foot pit in his farm where he buried her and then planted a coconut tree on top to hide the spot. He had also planned to kill his accomplice Jyoti."

Police Patil of the village, Vasant Naikwade, said, "Pol was one of the elected Gram Panchayat members between 2005 and 2010. He owns 35 gunthas of land in Ghom village. He had leased part of it to a poultry farm, but fell out with the owner. Pol was a well-known person in our village and we never suspected he could have abused his profession. It is shocking."

Vijay Pawar, additional superintendent of police, said, "We are scrutinising past missing complaints. Our local Crime Branch is also focusing on his bank records and other property information. His wife is on the run."

Kin slayer

As if it's not shocking enough that Pol killed Jedhe after knowing her for 18 years, he even killed his one of his own. He murdered his relative Janabai Pol on August 15, 2010 over a property dispute. She was a widow, and had come to rely upon Pol for financial assistance, so she could continue to educate her four daughters.

Janabai's youngest daughter Pallavi (18) recalled, "After my father's death, Pol grabbed all our land. He started visiting our house and claimed he would help us. He had promised to give R2,000 to my mother to buy grocery, but she never returned home."

On Monday, when the police unearthed the four skeletons from his farmhouse, Pallavi was shocked to see that one of the bodies was wrapped in her mother's green sari. "Pol had accompanied us to the police station to register a missing complaint for my mother, and even followed up with us for a few months. But then he began to avoid us. We had suspected him, but the police remained mum on the issue. When we came to know about the bodies, we went to the spot and saw my mother's body draped in her green cotton sari," she said.

Targeted lonely women

Pol allegedly targeted women who were "depressed" and "lonely". One of victims, Salma was an orphan, and didn't even have anyone to report her missing. Cops also said that Pol is very soft spoken, and had managed to develop goodwill and trust for himself among all his victims. "Pol targeted single and destitute women or women who husbands were working outstation. He would win their confidence by posing as a doctor and would claim that he knew powerful people," said Sanjay Patil, superintendent of Satara police.

Modus operandi

Kisan Chikane: (Missing since May 23, 2003) 30-year-old housewife who was Pol's patient. He killed for her gold ornaments, hitting her on the head with a hard object on May 20, 2003. He buried the body near his home in Dhom village.

Vanita Narhari Gaikwad: (Missing since August 12, 2006) 43-year-old HIV-positive woman who was Pol's patient. Also attacked with a hard object on August 12, 2006, as Pol wanted her gold. Her body was never traced

Janabai Pol: (Missing since August 15, 2010) 40-year-old woman who was Pol's relative. Died on August 13, 2010, after he hit her on the head with hard object following a property dispute. Buried her body and planted a tree over the grave.

Salma Shaikh: (Missing since January 2016) 30-year-old nurse suspected of having an affair with Pol. She died on January 17 after he suspected her of cheating on him with local gold merchant Nathmal Bhandari. Killed both of them with anaesthesia overdose and buried the bodies in his farm plot.

Nathmal Bhandari: (Missing since December 10, 2015) 63-year-old gold merchant who died on December 7, 2015. More information above.

Mangala Jedhe: (Missing since June 2016) The 40-year-old woman was an anaganwadi sevika and President of the State Anganwadi Organization. She worked with Pol on several initiatives and knew him since 2008.

The man behind the murders

A 41-year-old man from Dhom village in the Wai taluka of Satara district in Maharashtra, known to local people as "doctor" and an "anti-corruption activist", has been arrested by the police for allegedly committing as many as six murders between May 2003 and August 2016. Santosh Pol lived in a rental in Wai, even as he owns an ancestral home in Ghom. Pol's wife ran away with their two-year-old daughter while another nine-year-old son is studying in Std IV in a Panchgani school. Son of state transport bus driver, Pol lost his father at a young age. Facing hardships, he worked, along with his brother and sister, at others farms for their daily survival.

Doctor or not?

He claims he has BAMS degree and also holds a degree in an Electropathy course. Initially, he praticed in the Maan village, later moving on to Vadoli village and then Dhom village. The cops are now verifying his claims and checking on whether he completed his medical studies. The police, however, said he was treating a lot of local villagers regularly at very low fees. Sometime in the past, he also operated his own clinic. He also worked for a few months at a local clinic run by Dr Vidyadhar Ghotawadekar. When contacted, Ghotawadekar said that Pol only worked as a helper at his clinic, but that he was asked to leave the job because use to threaten him and misbehave. Ghotawadekar said that Pol stole his ambulance and a theft case has been registered in July at the Wai police station.

How Pol terrorised cops

Corruption complaints and RTI were a formidable tool for Pol to keep the police off guard

Not just villagers, but even the police and government officials were wary of Santosh Gulabrao Pol, thanks to his propensity to regularly file corruption complaints against them.
 
Most recently, he had filed a complaint against a senior Satara police official, who was trapped and arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau. Before that, he had got two constables and a revenue officer arrested. He was well-networked among such 'activists', who allegedly filed corruption complaints at his behest.

The investigating team suspects he may have been involved even in Mumbai's famous Mephedrone haul case, where Marine Drive Constable Dharamraj Kalokhe and alleged drug kingpin Shashikala Patankar were arrested.

A few months ago, his inputs allegedly led to the busting of a fake currency racket by Pune's Dehu Road police. The police suspect he was also involved in illegal gold deals. The police suspect his alleged accomplice Jyoti routinely met senior police officers to keep local policemen on their toes.

Questioned before

The police, however, questioned Pol multiple times after the missing reports regarding the deceased persons were filed in the past, but was never arrested before. his accomplice Jyoti Pandurang Mandhare (25). Police have also arrested Jyoti on August 10.

Sources said that once the police started looking for him after Mangala's disappearance, he approached a few friendly media persons in Mumbai and Pune, claiming that the police was planning to eliminate him as he was a genuine anti-corruption crusader.

IG Vishwas Nangare Patil confirmed that Pol's statement was even recorded in connection with the missing cases of at least three of the victims, but he was never arrested. The local police insist no evidence ever emerged against him in the past.

"We are trying to find out what happened then," Nangre Patil said.

Endgame

Inspector Vinayak Vetal, who cracked the current case said he was surprised at the influence Pol wielded in the village.

"I had took charge of Wai police station in April and, in May, we received a non-bailable warrant against Pol in a cheque-bounce case registered in Pune," said Vetal. "I directed my staff to serve the warrant at his house but no one was ready. I had to go personally. His wife and Jedhe started creating a ruckus. They even approached a superior officer to file a case of molestation and manhandling against me. They also approached the ACB."

With Mangala Jedhe's disappearance on June 15, Pol ran out of luck as her family lodged a missing person's complaint report at the Wai police station.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)