Clever crook 'Dr Death' remains a puzzle

Police are ascertaining if he committed more murders

After Satara-based Dr Santosh Pol confessed to six murders in the last 13 years, the police have the task of solving a jigsaw puzzle and establish motives behind the killings.

Besides, they are also ascertaining if Dr Pol had committed more murders and whether the killings are linked to each other.

The historic temple town of Wai, located below the hill stations of Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani, has been rattled by the serial killings and several people who went to the Wai police station on Tuesday demanded capital punishment for Dr Pol, who claims to be an expert in electrohomeopathy.

Special Inspector General of Police (Kolhapur Range) Vishwasrao Nangre Patil and Satara SP Sandeep Patil camped at Wai throughout the day to supervise the investigations.

“He is clever and a crook,” said Vishwasrao Patil, the first officer who was the first to enter the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, when the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack took place.

Forensic teams from Pune also reached Wai to collect samples to prepare a watertight case.

Dr Pol’s antecedents and his claims of being a doctor are being checked. He has an ancestral home in Dhom and a 1-acre farm which has a small room and some sheds.

Dr Pol (42) and his associate and nurse, Jyoti Pandurang Mandre (25), have  been arrested. Asked whether there were more suspects, the police said the probe was in progress.

The case came to light following the disappearance of Mangala Jedge, the president of the Maharashtra Purva Prathmik Shikshika Sevika Sangh. “On Mangala’s phone, the last call was from Pol and this was the starting point of the investigations,” Vishwasrao Patil said, adding that Dr Pol also used to threaten police officers saying he would go to the Anti-Corruption Bureau. “We first got hold of Jyoti in Satara and she then led us to Dr Pol, whom we trapped in Dadar,” he said.

Inspector Padmakar Ghanvat of Wai Crime Branch, who is heading the investigations, said that soon after Jedhe’s disappearance, Pol had lodged a complaint on June 24 accusing her of fleeing with 200 grams of gold on the promise of doubling them through a ponzi scheme.