Six murders in 13 years: Law finally catches up with Satara’s ‘Dr Death’

Pol’s arrest came after investigations into a missing anganwadi teacher — Mangal Bhiku Jedhe (49) of Velang village — revealed she was allegedly kidnapped and murdered by him and his accomplice Jyoti Pandurang Mandhare (25). Police had arrested Jyoti on August 10.

Primary investigations revealed Pol and Mangal knew each other since 1998. Police suspect Pol decided to eliminate Mangal as she was aware of his involvement in five murders in the past and had started blackmailing him. “Therefore, with the help of Jyoti, who is a nurse, Pol gave anaesthesia to Mangal and then buried her body in his poultry farm land in Dhom village on July 15,” said a police officer. Police have exhumed Mangal’s body from the spot. During investigation, Pol admitted to his involvement in the other five murders, police said.

Like Mangal, he had buried three more bodies in his poultry farm land and one in an open space near his house in the village. He had thrown one body into the Krishna river.

Remains of all the bodies he buried have been exhumed for investigations. Forensic experts from Pune and Kolhapur have taken samples from these remains for DNA tests. “In this act, which appears to be serial killings, there could be a different motive behind each murder. Prima facie, we feel gold was one of the motives,” Special Inspector General of Police (Kolhapur range) Vishwas Nangre-Patil told The Indian Express.

Police said Pol targeted women who stayed alone or away from their husbands. Mangal’s husband stayed in Mumbai while she worked in Velang. She was the state president of an organisation of anganwadi teachers.

Pol claimed he had a BAMS degree from a local college, but police are verifying whether he had completed his medical studies. Police said he used to treat a lot of local villagers regularly by charging a nominal fee. He operated his own clinic for sometime in the past and also worked for a few months at a local clinic run by Dr Vidyadhar Ghotawadekar.

When contacted, Ghotawadekar told mediapersons Pol only worked as a helper at his clinic but was asked to leave the job because he used to threaten him and misbehave. Ghotawadekar said Pol stole his ambulance and a theft case had been registered with the Wai police station a few months back.

Other victims

On the five murders in the past, police said he was suspected to have killed Surekha Kisan Chikane (30) of Vadavali village in Wai by attacking her head with a blunt object on May 20, 2003 for getting hold of the gold ornaments she was wearing. She was a housewife and Pol’s patient. Pol buried her near his home in Dhom village.

He is also suspected to have murdered Vanita Narhari Gaikwad (43) of Dhom by assaulting her with a hard object, again for gold, on August 12, 2006. Police said Vanita was reportedly suffering from a serious ailment and used to come to Pol for treatment. Her body was never traced.

Also, police said Pol may have murdered one Jagabai by hitting her with a blunt object on her head following a property dispute on August 13, 2010. She was also his patient. Police said after burying Jagabai, he had planted a tree at the spot. Police had to uproot the tree for removing her remains.

Police said Salma Shaikh of Raviwar Peth in Wai was a nurse and was suspected to have had an affair with Pol. The duo used to approach Nathmal Dhanaji Bhandari (63) of Bramhanshahi, a local jeweller, for their deals. Police said Pol killed Bhandari on December 7, 2015 and then Salma on January 17, 2016, suspecting that they were in a relationship and cheating him. Police said in both cases, he gave them anesthesia and then buried the bodies in his poultry farm land. Salma was an orphan, so nobody even lodged a missing report for her.

Breakthrough

Meanwhile, police said Mangal went missing on June 15 this year and her family lodged a missing person’s report at Wai police station the next day. Police said Mangal was close to Pol. Also, probe revealed that the last call from Mangal’s cellphone was made to Pol’s phone.
Police said though Mangal was missing her cellphone was found active in Pune and Kolhapur. Soon, it was revealed that Pol’s aide Jyoti was using Mangal’s phone. Pol had given Mangal’s phone to Jyoti, asking her to make some calls purposefully from it. Pol wanted police and Mangal’s family to believe she was alive and moving around with her cellphone.

During further probe, senior police inspector Padmakar Ghanwat got information that Pol and Jyoti had kidnapped and murdered Mangal. Police started searching for them. Police laid a trap and nabbed Jyoti from the Wai area on August 10. On August 11, a Satara police team nabbed Pol at Dadar in Mumbai.

Sandip Patil, superintendent of Satara police, said Pol admitted during interrogation that he and Jyoti had murdered Mangal and buried her in the land in his poultry farm on June 15. During sustained interrogation, Pol admitted to killing five more persons. A local court has remanded Pol and Jyoti to police custody till August 18.

One more murder?

Police said after planning a murder, nearly a month before, he used to call JCM machines at his poultry farm, located at a secluded area in Dhom, for digging ditches in which he could bury his targets. Police said he had got ditches dug for his five victims nearly one-two months before he committed the murders. IG Nangare Patil said Pol committed cold blooded murders with a proper plan.

Meanwhile, police have found one more ditch near his poultry farm. Police suspect he had plans to eliminate Jyoti but added that there was no evidence as such as of now.