HC grants bail to dismissed PSI held in case of rape and abetting Phaltan medical officer’s death by suicide

Kolhapur: The Bombay high court's Kolhapur bench has granted bail to a dismissed police sub-inspector (PSI), who was arrested in the alleged rape and abetment of suicide of a 28-year-old doctor with the Phaltan sub district hospital in Satara district last Oct.The bench of Justice Sachin S Deshmukh referred to submissions from either side and the record, including the chargesheet, and said the same indicated that the applicant (PSI) and the survivor were in contact with each other and WhatsApp chats indicated that it was a case of a relationship turning sour. "Moreover, prima facie, there is dearth of material on record to indicate the proximate and compelling reasons attributable to the applicant at the time of alleged incident," the bench said in its April 1 order."It is pertinent to note that apart from the suicide note, implicating the applicant regarding the offence of rape, there is absence of detailed allegation or time of the incident. Given that the applicant and the deceased were in relation with each other, the alleged act of physical relations, if any, cannot be prima facie treated as non-consensual," the bench said.The court noted that the investigation has been completed and the charge sheet too has been filed and going by the list of witnesses, the trial was unlikely to begin and conclude within a reasonable period.Advocate Girish Wani, representing the dismissed PSI, told TOI on Friday, "Our client was released from the Satara jail in the morning after furnishing a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and fulfilling other conditions as directed by the HC. We will now file an appeal before the state home secretary against the Special Inspector General (Kolhapur Range) Sunil Phulari's order of Nov 5, 2025, that dismissed our client from service. There was no notice, no enquiry before the dismissal. It was initiated only upon the filing of an FIR. The HC's bail order makes our case a little stronger."The doctor was found dead late in the evening of Oct 23, 2025, hanging by a dupatta tied to a ceiling fan in a hotel room near the hospital. A note purportedly written by her on her palm, named the PSI and another man, who is the son of her landlord, for driving her to the extreme step by subjecting her to physical and mental harassment for the last five months. Based on this note and other evidence like WhatsApp chats exchanges, the police filed an FIR for offences under sections 64 (rape) and 108 (abetment of suicide) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against the two named accused.The HC has restrained the dismissed PSI from putting any pressure on the prosecution witnesses or tampering with the prosecution evidence. Also he shall attend the trial on each and every date unless exempted by the trial court.A Special Investigation Team under senior IPS officer Tejaswini Satpute had filed the chargesheet. The hearing over the bail application of another co-accused who is an engineer and son of the landlord of the deceased doctor is underway at Phaltan's sessions court. He too has been booked under rape and abetment of suicide.