'Dr death' murdered people in cold blood: Police

Satara police today claimed that Santosh Pol, accused of killing six people including five women between 2003 and 2016, did not appear to be a psychopath and murdered three of them for financial gain.
Pol, a 42-year-old doctor from Wai, murdered three of the victims -- Surekha Chikane, Jagabai Pol and Nathmal Bhandari -- with the motive of financial gain, while Salma Shaikh and Mangala Jedhe were put to death as he feared they would spill the beans about his crimes, police said.
"Dr Pol is not a psychopath, rather he is mentally quite stable, and cleverly executed all these killings in cold blood. He is revealing a lot of new things in the interrogation, but all that needs to be corroborated," said Satara district Superintendent of Police, Sandip Patil, adding they would seek permission for his narco-analysis test.

Pol, who is being dubbed as "Dr Death", allegedly told police that he killed Jedhe, his last victim, as she knew that he had killed Chikane and Jagabai, and was aware of his other criminal activities too.
Similarly, Salma, who worked as a nurse at a hospital in Wai, knew that Pol had murdered Nathmal Bhandari.
"He told us that Chikane had a dispute with one of her relatives, and owned a lot of gold. It was Jedhe who told Pol about this dispute so that he could 'settle' it. Chikane later started taking treatment from Pol for some ailment and used to visit his clinic at Dhom in the district. Pol killed her with the intention of looting her gold," the SP said.

In the case of Jagabai, Pol had promised to help her get her land back from a person who had grabbed it fraudulently. Again it was Jedhe who put her in touch with Pol.

SP Patil said that Pol admitted to killing Bhandari, a jeweller, out of greed for gold.
"Nathamal was murdered on December 7, 2015, while
Salma was murdered on January 17, 2016," the SP added.
Pol told police that he killed both Nathamal and Salma in an ambulance while travelling between Wai and Pune. He then took the bodies to his poultry farm in Dhom and buried them.

After getting rid of Salma, he suspected that Jedhe, an Anganwadi worker and a local activist, might be a threat because she knew about the initial murders. He kidnapped her on June 15, 2016, with the help of Jyoti Mandre and killed her.
It was the probe into Jedhe's disappearance which ultimately led to his arrest along with Mandre.
"He was also planning to eliminate Jyoti, but was arrested before that," said Patil.
Vanita Gaikwad was murdered on August 12, 2006, and her body was thrown into the backwater of Dhom dam. Patil said only in her case the police were yet to find out Pol's exact motive.

"All these admissions need to be corroborated and we can not blindly rely on his confession. That is why we have decided to seek permission from the court to perform narco-analysis test on him," the SP added.
As per the police, Pol killed Surekha Chikane on May 20, 2003. On August 12, 2006, he killed Vanita Gaikwad; on August 13, 2010, he killed Jagabai Pol. Nathamal Bhandari was killed on December 7, 2015. On January 17, 2016, he murdered Salma Shaikh, and on June 16 he killed Jedhe.