Pune: A spy camera, six mobile phones and two vials of a muscle relaxant have been found by police from the residences and a poultry farm of Santosh Pol, dubbed as ‘Dr Death’, who is being probed for his alleged role of murders of at least six persons between 2003 and 2016 in Satara district.
Satara police on Thursday produced Pol before the court of 2nd Judicial Magistrate R K Thorat in Wai, who remanded him in police custody until August 26, while his accomplice Jyoti Mandre was remanded in judicial custody.
Searches have been conducted at Pol’s houses in Wai and Dhom, and a poultry farm, also located in Dhom.
Police told the court they had recovered a spy camera pen, six mobiles phones, two vials of muscle relaxant succinylcholine chloride (SUCOL), three syringes, documents relating to Pol’s BEMS degree, multiple SIM cards, gold jewellery, ATM cards, a telephone diary and two motorcycles during the searches.
Pol is accused of killing six people, including five women and a man, in ‘cold blood’ between 2003 and 2016.
Informing the court about the murder of Mangala Jedhe, an anganwadi worker, allegedly by Pol and Mandre, police said the duo had met Jedhe on June 15.
They took her to Mandre’s house in Wai and in the wee hours of June 16, they took her to Pol’s poultry farm, where she was administered 10 ml of the muscle relaxant, police said.
Police alleged despite knowing that a dose of scolin above 1 or 1.5 ml is dangerous, Pol administered her an overdose of the medication and killed her.
“After killing Jedhe, the duo then buried her body in the backyard of Pol’s poultry farm (in Dhom),” police said in their submission before the court.
“Pol, currently arrested in Jedhe murder case, will be produced in court on Friday and once he is remanded in judicial custody in that case, he will be arrested in other murder cases,” said Sandip Patil, Superintendent of Police, Satara.
He said police will interrogate Pol to find out if he had any role in the mysterious disappearance of three persons, as claimed by their family members.
The SP said police suspected a “foul play” in 2012 death of a ward boy in a hospital in Wai where Pol was then working.
“In 2012, one Tushar Jadhav, a ward boy working with Ghotawadekar Hospital, Wai, died after he was beaten up by family members of a woman patient who was allegedly molested by him.
“Pol used to work in the same hospital. The cause of Jadhav’s death was pulmonary cardiac arrest, which was caused by excessive alcohol consumption. Since family of the deceased had clarified that he never used to consume alcohol, a foul play is suspected,” Patil said.