Days after the suicide of a doctor in Maharashtra’s Satara district, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis Sunday threw his weight behind a former BJP MP who has been accused by the Opposition of “pressuring” the doctor.
The 29-year-old doctor’s body was found in a hotel in Satara’s Phaltan town. In a five-page letter, purportedly written by her before her death, she claimed to have been pressured by a former MP to alter the medical reports of an arrested person. Opposition leaders have alleged that the former MP was Ranjitsinh Nimbalkar.
Fadnavis arrived in the town Sunday to inaugurate development projects. The event was organised by Nimbalkar himself.
The Chief Minister backed his party colleague and said politics was being played in the wake of the suicide. Fadnavis said: “The name of Ranjitsinh is being linked with the case without any reason. But Maharashtra knows what Deva bhau is all about. If I had even the slightest suspicion, I would not have come to this event. I would have cancelled the event. In such cases, I never consider party, caste, individuals or politics.”
Fadnavis’s decision to attend the event organised by Nimbalkar drew criticism from Opposition parties including the Shiv Sena (UBT).
The Chief Minister assured the former MP at the event: “Don’t worry, we (the party) will stand behind you with full force.”
A note on the doctor’s palm said she had been raped multiple times by a police sub-inspector and sexually harassed and assaulted by her landlord’s son. Police have arrested both. Her family had alleged she was under “police and political pressure”. Fadnavis said: “The police have arrested the accused in no time. Truth is coming out in the case. We will not sit quietly till we ensure that the family of the doctor gets justice.”
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NCP leader Dhananjay Munde, meanwhile, alleged that the personal assistant of the former BJP MP had put pressure on the doctor to alter the medical report in question.
