Pune lawyer Deepti Kale, recently arrested on the charge of abetment in the suicide of jeweller Milind alias Balwant Marathe, died around 4 pm on Tuesday after falling from the eighth floor of the Covid care centre at the Sassoon general hospital, where she was being treated under judicial custody.

City police commissioner Amitabh Gupta told the news agency, “The woman (Kale) was shifted to the Covid care centre after she had tested positive. She visited the washroom & opened the window louvers in a bid to escape but lost balance & fell to her death.”

Deputy commissioner of police (Zone II) Sagar Patil told the news agency that “We have prima facie concluded that Kale died while trying to escape from the eighth-floor washroom window. Our conclusion is based on the fact that she had removed the window glass louvers & twisted an iron grille in a bid to escape. We suspect she tried to hold on to a pipe to scale down but lost balance & fell. She had gone to the washroom telling the centre’s staffers that she wanted to have a bath & wash her clothes.”

“We have registered an accidental death case & also an FIR under section 224 of the Indian Penal Code, which refers to escaping from lawful custody,” said Patil.

Additional director-general (prisons) Sunil Ramanand said, “A magisterial inquiry will be conducted to probe the lawyer’s death because she was remanded in judicial custody.”

Police said some hospital staffers noticed Kale having fallen down. She had not come out of the washroom for quite some time & the centre’s staffers opened the door fearing something amiss. They found her missing, the louvers removed & the grille twisted. They called the Bund Garden police.

“There were no eyewitnesses to the fall. A section of the Covid care centre is used for treating inmates in judicial custody. Four policemen have been deployed outside the centre,” said DCP Patil.

Sassoon hospital’s medical superintendent Ajay Taware told the news agency, “I received information from the resident medical officer about the woman’s death. The police are investigating & an internal inquiry will also be conducted.”

Kale’s lawyer Tosif Shaikh told the news agency, “After her arrest on April 17, Kale had filed a written complaint on April 23 before a magisterial court alleging police atrocities against her & that they had forcibly injected her with some medicines. On April 26, she was remanded in magisterial custody & sent to the Covid care centre of the hospital after testing positive.”

“On April 19, Kale’s husband had written to the chief minister stating that his wife apprehended physical danger from the city police. We want a post-mortem done & an investigation by an independent agency,” Shaikh said.

MCOCA, extortion cases

On Sunday, the city police had invoked the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) provisions against Kale & her aide & followed up by registering a case of alleged extortion against her & two others based on an FIR lodged by the wife of a city-based land developer.

Assistant commissioner of police (Swargate division) Sushama Chavan, who took over the MCOCA case probe, told the news agency on Tuesday. “Kale’s aide is already in police custody till May 3.”

The Police alleged that Kale had 5 cases to her name, including 2 of attempts to murder, registered with various police stations.

The Marathe case investigation revealed that she was running an organised crime syndicate involving some more persons who would also be arrested soon, the Police said.

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