Satara (Maharashtra) [India], October 26 : Suspended Police Sub-Inspector Gopal Badne, an accused in the Satara woman doctor suicide case, was produced before the Additional District and Sessions Court in Phaltan in Maharashtra on Sunday and remanded to police custody till October 30.
The doctor who was found dead in Maharashtra's Satara on Friday, left a note written on her hand that named a police official and two others, officials said.
Satara Police arrested two persons, Police Sub-Inspector Gopal Badne and Prashant Bankar, in connection with the case. A case was registered against the accused duo under charges of rape and abetment to suicide. The Police Sub-Inspector Badne named in the note was suspended following this development.
His defence counsel, however, opposed the plea during the hearing, arguing that the case against the suspended officer was false and motivated.
"Today, the accused was produced before the Honourable Court by the investigating agency, and they raised their grounds for police custody. We strongly objected to the police custody before the Honourable Court, as the entire case in which my client, Gopal Badne, has been arrested is false," the defence counsel Advocate Rahul Dhaigude said.
Explaining the defence's stance, the lawyer added that there were "two angles" to the case.
"Before the incident of alleged abetment to suicide or other allegations, my client and three other police officers had filed a complaint against the lady victim, which is still under investigation. During that inquiry, her statement was recorded by a government civil surgeon, and she had not made any allegation of rape -- that is one angle," the lawyer stated.
He further argued that the circumstances surrounding the woman's death pointed toward a different chain of events.
"Secondly, because of the suicide she had committed, the place, the spot of the incident is Hotel where she had taken room on a rent and when she lodged in the room, that time she had committed suicide but already she was staying at a home on a rent basis. The accused number two, Prashant Bankar, is the son of that owner of that home and she made allegation also against him that he is continuously harassing her for last four months," the defence cousel said.
The defence said that the "proximity of time" and the sequence of events preceding the suicide needed deeper examination.
"The proximity of time which is important for the suicide that she was staying at their home, she left the house, why she had not returned to the house of the landlord and why she had committed suicide at a lodge. Court granted four days police custody up to October 30."