'Dr Death' may have killed seven persons: Official

Police suspects that Santosh Gulabrao Pol, who had confessed to the murder of six persons and earned the moniker of 'Dr Death', may have killed one more person, an official said here on Tuesday.

The suspicion stems from the fact that forensic examination of the skeletal remains exhumed on Friday from his farmhouse has revealed that these were of two persons.

Earlier on Tuesday, police swooped on the Ghotawadekar hospital belonging to medico Vidyadhar Ghotawadekar where Pol worked as the Intensive Care Unit incharge a few years ago.

Wai Crime Branch staff seized several medical records and documents from the hospital as part of the ongoing probe.

Under the police scanner since the murders allegedly committed by Pol came out on August 15, Ghotawadekar suffered a cardiac arrest on last Saturday and is admitted in a Pune hospital.

The police had summoned several jewellers from Wai and surrounding areas for questioning after Pol revealed his alleged involvement in ponzi schemes that promised doubling of gold jewellery deposits, official sources said.

Pol was arrested on August 11 from Mumbai and he allegedly confessed to killing six persons, including one man, and burying their bodies in his sprawling poultry farm, around 13 km on the Wai town's outskirts between 2003-2016.

Police are also investigating three missing persons complaints as well, after their relatives expressed apprehensions that they may have met a similar fate as Pol's other victims.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Mahila Lok Ayog leader Varsha Deshpande said its activists will take out a procession to the Wai police station on Wednesday to demand widening the scope of the police investigation to focus on Pol's other accomplices and government and police officials etc.

In a related incident, labourer Subhash V. Chakke, 49, who was engaged to dig some of the graves wherein Pol had buried his victims, suffered a heart attack and died.

--IANS

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