Doctors from the Regional Mental Hospital at Yerawada, who observed killer MSRTC bus driver Santosh Mane closely for 10 days, feel that Mane is not unhinged.
In fact, they say instead of finding signs of any mental illness or disorder, they found his behaviour very alert and defensive which is absolutely contrary to the conduct of mentally ill people.
Although they would not say it in as many words, the doctors hint at the possibility of Mane taking advantage of his past medical history to wriggle himself free from consequences of his reckless deed which snuffed the lives out of eight people leaving 39 injured on January 25.
If proven to be mentally unstable, the court could take a softer view on Mane’s act. However, mental hospital authorities find no such evidence to support the view that Mane was unstable.
In a confidential report submitted to the court, doctors have observed that Mane showed absolutely no signs of abnormal behaviour. The court had sent Mane to the mental hospital for observation following claims by his family that he was a patient seeking treatment from a doctor in Solapur.
Medical superintendent, Dr Vilas Bhailume, said that three different methods were used to analyse Mane’s conduct and reach conclusion. “For ten days that he was here, we conducted mental status examinations thrice a day. A team of four class I psychiatrists interviewed him for nearly one and half hours asking him different type of questions,” Bhailume said.
“Besides, a team of psychiatric nurses and ward boys watched him round the clock and jotted down notes about his behaviour like muttering, scribbling on walls etc, if any,” recalled Bhailume. He added that the third method of analysis was use of psychometric test kits to assess hidden mental disturbances, hidden thoughts etc.
“We observed that there nothing in his behaviour that could be termed abnormal. He would get up at 6 am like all other inmates for tea, follow daily routine. He enjoyed good sleep and had normal eating pattern,” Bhailume said.
“In fact, during the interviews, he spoke less but answered most questions put up to him with alertness of mind. But whenever he was asked about the incident, he denied having done it. His overall behaviour appeared on the defensive,” added Bhailume.
Sources claim that Mane said that he learned about the incident from newspapers. “He must be making that up as we don’t remember he was given newspapers to read. All he read in the hospital were some spiritual books,” said an employee of hospital.
During mental status examinations, doctors looked for signs of mental illness like abnormal appearances, orientation of mind, irrelevant speech, thought disorders, perceptual disturbances like seeing things that don’t exist or hear sounds, memory of events, judgement of situations, insight i.e. knowledge of why he was brought to hospital etc.
Bhailume added that on all these counts, no positive activity was seen indicating Mane was normal during examination.
“However, we cannot say with conviction that he wouldn’t get psychiatric illness in future. His history showed that he was taking psychiatric treatment in Solapur as well as initial observation showed positive signs of psychotic behaviour.”
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