‘Masala salesman-turned-surgeon Sonawane lied that he’s an orphan’

The 51yearold spice seller who lied about being an orthopaedic surgeon and lured five women into marrying him had also claimed to be an orphan Hemant Patil alias Hemant Sonawane targeted welleducated and financially independent women midday spoke to a few of them and learnt that some never remarried as they were emotionally shatteredA source told midday ldquoSonawane is addicted to porn He must be sent to a mental asylumrdquo He met his first wife in Katni decades ago and they have an 18yearold son He has been living with his mother an engineer in a governmentrun office after the couplersquos divorceHe also had illicit and livein relationships with over six dozen women including nurses of hospitals he worked at as a consulting orthopaedic said a source Police sources told midday that over 90 per cent of the contact numbers on Sonawanersquos mobile phone belong to womenlsquoA womaniserrsquoldquoHe is a textbook example of a womaniser He had emotionally blackmailed me saying that he was an orphan He was a good caring husband in the beginning but soon started fighting with me for no reasons or over trivial issuesrdquo said a Mathematics professor from Karnataka Sonawane is a native of Jalgaon and his father Murlidhar who worked in Railway Mail Service RMS passed away in December 2020 His mother Malti was a house maker and died in March 2018 ldquoHis elder sister Manda Chauhan is a primary school teacher and lives in Chalisgaon His younger brother Hitendra Sonawane has completed his diploma in engineering and lives in Dombivlirdquo said an officer from the Vasai police station ldquoHe would always say that he is an orphan and that there is no one to take care of him But in fact his parents were alive when he first met merdquo said another survivorlsquoWas shatteredrsquoA dentist who married Sonawane in 2014 ldquomet him through the matrimonial website He would pretend to be an orthopaedic surgeon Once he took my brother to a hospital in Mulund where he was a consultantrdquo Within a week of their marriage she learnt that his educational qualifications and the medical degrees were forged She filed a police complaint in Amravati ldquoIn September 2015 he was arrested and imprisoned for nearly nine monthsrdquo said the dentist who soon divorced Sonawane She said she didnrsquot marry again as the first marriage had shattered her emotionally She added that Sonawane conducted multiple surgeries in Mumbai and ldquoall these surgeries were unsuccessfulrdquoThereafter he rented a 1BHK flat at Rutu Enclave in Thane and got into a relationship with an MBA student but it lasted only a month He later moved to Vijay Park and married an engineer but she left him said the source ldquoShe has told her relatives and neighbours that her husband passed away She is now living alonerdquoMoved to KarnatakaNext Sonawane married a Maths professor from Hubli in Karnataka ldquoI am the eldest among my siblings I lost my father in August 2016 and I was looking for a responsible person who can shoulder the responsibility of my family as my siblings were still studyingrdquo she said adding that Sonawane agreed to give her the support she needed and moved to HublildquoHe had told me that he earns Rs 10 lakh per monthrdquo but later he fooled her into paying his hotel bills and later sold off her jewellery ldquoGradually my family got suspicious and I left him I am now left emotionally shatteredrdquo She said that Sonawane opened an orthopaedic clinic in Hubli and worked in many hospitals in Bailhongal Belgaum Mundgod and Navalgund ldquoHe has also worked in a hospital run by HubliDharwad municipal corporationrdquo she addedShe had hired a detective to find out the truth about him and spent lakhs of rupees ldquoHe would go to Thane where he had taken a flat on rent He had married a BCom graduate 38rdquo she said ldquoHis current wife is making rounds of the Vasai police station and court to bail him out I have learnt that she married this cheater after going against her parentsrdquo Other survivors told midday that Sonawane would also brainwash his victims to marry themAttempt to murder charge against SonawaneA 59yearold patient who cannot even stand properly after the botchedup surgeries has filed a police complaint against Hemant SonawaneBased on her complaint on January 12 ldquoan FIR has been registered against Sonawane under Section 307 attempt to murder of the IPC Till now nine such victims have come up and we have recorded their statementsrdquo said Senior Inspector of Vasai police station Kalyanrao KarpeSonawane had operated on her knees in February 2020 at Kanekar Hospital in Vasai she told midday ldquoEven after surgeries there was no relief in pain After five days he administered a few injections in my knees but they didnrsquot help He told me to visit Indu hospital for an MRI of my spine and said that after he operates on my spine I will be able to walk without any support But my pain aggravated at Indu hospital where I spent R20000rdquo she addedShe was later rushed to a hospital in Shivaji Park ldquowhere doctors told her that her knees were infected and that her legs would have to be chopped offrdquo She and her husband both were ill so they didnrsquot approach the police ldquoYesterday my physiotherapist told me that Sonawane has been arrested So we contacted the Vasai police and they came to my house and recorded my statementrdquo she said