'Dr Death' confuses cops

The ‘Dr Death’ of Wai seems to be confusing and misleading the Satara Police, which is investigating at least six murders committed by him from 2003-2016.

Dr Santosh Pol (48), a quack who claims to be an electrohomeopath, was produced before a Magistrate court at Satara, which extended his police remand till August 23. So far, in the mass murders, Dr Pol and his nurse Jyoti Mandare have been arrested.

The Wai Crime Branch-CID now has a tough challenge of tracing Dr Pol’s other accomplices, if any.

“He is a tough nut to crack,” a police officer, who is part of the investigating team, said. During interrogation, the doctor had initially said that he had thrown the body of one of the victims, Vanita Gaikwad, into the Krishna river.

“We checked the riverside, looked for old records, but could not find the body or any human remains,” said the officer, adding that he later told he had buried the body near his house in Dhom.

The fig tree and shrubs prevented prompted the police to call a civic team which finally dug out a skeleton from the location shown by Dr Pol.

A team of forensic experts from Mumbai’s KEM Hospital, which reached Wai, is conducting tests on the skeleton to establish the victim’s identity. A forensic team from Pune is also camping there.

On August 15, Dr Pol had confessed to the cold-blooded murders of Surekha Kisan Chikane in 2003, Vanita Narhari Gaikwad in 2006, Jagabai Laxman Pol in 2010, Nathmal Dhanaji Bhandari in 2015, an orphan Salma Shaikh in January and an anganwadi worker Mangal Jedhe in June, this year.