Maharashtra doctor’s suicide case: Victim was targeted due to her Beed link amid standoff with police? Report reveals

The 29-year-old government doctor, who allegedly died by suicide on Thursday in Satara district’s Phaltan and accused sub-inspector Gopal Badane of rape and software engineer Prashant Bankar of mental harassment, was embroiled in an intense confrontation with the local police, according to Hindustan Times.

She was posted at the Phaltan Sub-District Hospital. She had lodged several complaints naming multiple police officers, while the police, in turn, had filed counter-allegations against her, showed documents seen by HT.

“If anything happens to me, the police will be responsible’

The doctor detailed occurrences of alleged harassment in a later four-page statement submitted to a committee probing these accusations. She claimed that she was being targeted considering her Beed connection and cautioned that “if anything happens to me, the police will be responsible”, the report noted. The doctor had submitted her account in August 2025.

Besides claiming she was raped more than once by a police officer, the doctor asserted that a Member of Parliament exerted repeated pressure on her to manipulate medical reports. According to her statement, she was threatened after declining to do so. The dispute between the doctor and the police centers on repeated pressure exerted on her to falsify fitness certificates and post-mortem reports, allegedly to help keep accused individuals in police custody.

In her first letter dated June 19, 2025, addressed to the Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) of Phaltan, the doctor detailed, using the surnames of specific officers, that she had faced repeated pressure to issue fitness certificates for accused individuals brought to the hospital.

When her complaint went unaddressed, she filed a Right To Information (RTI) application on August 13 with the SDPO (Phaltan) seeking information on the action taken regarding her June 19 complaint.

Meanwhile, in July, officers from the Phaltan police station lodged a written complaint with the Satara Civil Surgeon, alleging that the doctor had deliberately issued “not fit” certificates for accused persons, thereby delaying their arrests and custodial remand. The Satara Civil Surgeon constituted a two-member committee to investigate the matter.

The doctor reiterated her allegations against the police and also claimed political pressure in a detailed four-page written statement submitted to this committee in August. She stated that the personal assistant (PA) of a MP had called her, accusing her of favouring the accused because she belonged to Beed district, though she did not name the MP.

“On July 31, 2025, when Phaltan Police brought an accused for medical examination, I observed that he had high blood pressure and decided to admit him for treatment. However, the police insisted on taking him back immediately,” HT quoted her statement as saying.

She also noted that when two other accused, Malhari Chavan and Swapnil Jadhav, were brought in, she referred Chavan for a 2D Echo test in Satara and examined Jadhav locally. She added that the fitness certificate for Jadhav was later issued following instructions from the Medical Superintendent of Satara District, Dr Anshuman Dhumal.

Two of the MP’s PAs arrived at the hospital and put her on a call with the MP. The MP allegedly scolded her for “not issuing certificates as desired by the police.” After PSI Gopal Badane once came to the emergency ward, sat on a chair, and threatened her, alleged the doctor, while her complaints to senior doctors, comprising Dr Anshuman Dhumal, went unheard.

Dhumal has rejected the claims, saying, “We have not received any formal complaint in which the female doctor has accused police officials of harassing her. She had only put it before the probe committee and she was later instructed based on the outcome of the report.”