Maharashtra doc suicide case: Satara Police access new CCTV footage of woman entering hotel room alone

Mumbai: The controversy surrounding the death of 28-year old woman doctor in Maharashtra’s Satara district is still brewing. It has been almost a week since the young doctor took her own life by hanging, and police are investigating the suicide case from all the possible angles. In the latest turn of events, fresh CCTV footage has surfaced showing the victim entering her hotel room just before her death. The footage, dated October 23 at around 1:30 am, shows the doctor arriving at the hotel, signing the register at the reception, and proceeding to her room without anyone accompanying her. Hotel owner Dilip Bhosale, who provided the footage, confirmed she was alone and that the room door was later found locked from the inside.

The Satara Police are verifying all the details of the CCTV and are also sourcing footage from the nearby areas.

The doctor, posted in a government hospital, was found dead in the hotel room in Phaltan late on the night of October 23. In a short message written on her palm, she named two men, Sub-Inspector Gopal Badane and a Pune-based software engineer, Prashant Bankar, accusing them of serious wrongdoings. Both of them were arrested and are in custody.

The new footage came after Sushma Andhare, a senior leader of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) faction, questioned whether the doctor had entered the hotel voluntarily and suggested the possibility of coercion. In response, the hotel’s owner provided the CCTV clips to local authorities, asserting that no one accompanied her at the time of entry.

According to the preliminary investigation, the doctor had been invited to Bankar’s home for a Lakshmi Puja ceremony on 23 October.

Maharashtra State Commission for Women chairperson Rupali Chakankar said an argument broke out between the two during the event over photographs taken at the ritual. “She reportedly left the house after the argument. Bankar’s father brought her back briefly, but she left again later and checked into a nearby lodge,” Chakankar said.

Before taking her life, the doctor allegedly sent a series of text messages to Bankar, expressing emotional distress. “She indicated she might take an extreme step,” Chakankar noted, citing details from messages recovered by investigators. Police also confirmed that she made a late-night call to Bankar, though it remains unclear whether he answered.

The following morning, hotel staff found her body. The post-mortem mentioned the cause of death as “asphyxia due to hanging”. The post-mortem, conducted at a state-run hospital, included preserving the viscera for chemical analysis at the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), a mandatory step in unnatural death cases.

According to the Satara Police, they are questioning everyone who was close to the victim including family, friends, colleagues and neighbours to find out if anything else triggered her during the past few months.

The victim’s family claims there is more to her suicide story. Family claims that her body was found around 1.30 am but the postmortem was not conducted till 6 am in the morning. The family alleges that the hospital deliberately delayed due to pressure. Family also claims that victim’s mobile phone was taken away and important evidences from her phone was deleted. Police say they are investigating all the claims one by one.

Satara Police chief Tushar Doshi said digital evidence recovered from the victim’s phone corroborates that she had remained in contact with Bankar in the days leading to her death. However, her last communication with Badane dated back to March.

The probe into the rape allegations against PSI Badane continues.

The victim’s colleagues also claim that she was harassed mentally at work when she refused to forge or twist facts in postmortem reports.

Documents reviewed by investigators show that the doctor had previously filed multiple written complaints against PSI Badane and other officers, alleging harassment and intimidation. On June 19, she submitted a complaint to the Deputy Superintendent of Police, accusing them of coercing her to issue false medical fitness certificates for criminal suspects.

The complaint, however, was followed by a counter-FIR filed by the Phaltan Rural Police, accusing the doctor of obstructing an investigation. Activists and colleagues now allege that this bureaucratic standoff worsened her mental distress and left her without institutional support.