Subhash Patil of Karnataka did not give up his dream of becoming a doctor despite spending 14 years behind the bars. A resident of Afzalpura, Kalbargi, 40-year-old Patil joined the MBBS course in 1997. In 2002, he had been jailed for life in a murder case.
Patil was arrested by the Bangalore Police in November 2002 for the murder of an excise contractor, Ashok Gutedar. At that time, Patil was a third-year MBBS student at Mahadevappa Rampur Medical College, Gulbarga.
Investigations revealed that Patil had had an affair with Padmavati, the wife of Gutedar. He murdered the contractor with the help of Padmavati who was arrested too.
On 15 February 2006, a fast-track court sentenced Padmavati and Patil to life imprisonment. Both had then filed an appeal in the high court to overturn the sentence, but the court upheld the life sentence against them.
Subhash Patil’s academic dreams, however, kept driving him while he was in jail during his ‘life’ imprisonment. He completed his diploma in journalism in 2007 and did his MA in journalism in 2010 from Karnataka State Open University.
He told reporters on Saturday, “In jail, I worked at the OPD. Not only this, I assisted doctors at the Central Jail Hospital.”
The Department of Health honoured Patil in 2008 for treating tuberculosis-affected prisoners. “I was released in 2016 due to good behaviour,” he says. That year, he sought permission from the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences to continue his MBBS and the university approved it after receiving legal opinion. Emerging from jail, he completed his MBBS in 2019.
Patil told reporters, “Now I am working at the Basaveshwara Hospital in Kalburgi. I have a registration certificate from the Karnataka Medical Council.” Earlier this month, he completed a one-year internship required to pursue an MBBS degree.
