Pune bus rape case: Accused Dattatray Gade arrested from Shirur

Maharashtra: Pune Police on Friday arrested accused Dattatray Gade (36) for raping a 26-year-old woman inside a bus at Swargate depot, reported PTI. He was detained around midnight from Shirur Tehsil.

The accused is named in half a dozen theft, robbery and chain-snatching cases in the Pune and Ahilyanagar districts. He has been out on bail since 2019 for one of the offences.

Thirteen police teams were deployed at various locations around the state to nab the accused. The cops had also deployed sniffer dogs and drones as part of a search operation within the tracts of sugarcane crops located in Shirur Tehsil in  Pune on Thursday.

The incident took place around 5.45 am on Tuesday. The victim was waiting for a bus for Phaltan in Satara district at one of the platforms. A man approached her and engaged in conversation, calling her `Didi' (sister), and said the bus for Satara had arrived at another platform. He then took her to an empty Shiv Shahi AC bus parked elsewhere on the sprawling station premises.

As the lights inside the bus were not on, she hesitated to get in at first, but the man convinced her that it was the right bus. He then followed her inside and raped her before fleeing, the woman told police.

Writing on X, Pawar called the incident 'extremely unfortunate, painful, infuriating and shameful to all in civilised society'. "The crime committed by the accused in this crime is unforgivable and there can be no other punishment for him than death," the NCP leader wrote.

“I assure all my brothers, sisters and mothers in Maharashtra that the state government will take all steps to ensure that the accused is arrested by the police as soon as possible and he is punished as severely as possible according to the law,” Pawar further said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Smartana Patil told the media that CCTV footage showed the woman walking towards the bus with the accused. When the incident took place, there were many people and several buses on the station premises, she said. The woman did not approach the police immediately after the incident but took another bus to her hometown and narrated the incident to her friend on the phone while travelling, the DCP said. On her friend's advice, she got down within the city limits and went to the police station, Patil said.

The DCP said cases were registered against Gade in the past in the Shikrapur and Shirur police station limits in the Pune district. He added that police have formed eight teams to nab him.

Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik directed that all 23 private security guards employed at the bus station should be replaced. He also instructed MSRTC managing director Vivek Bhimanwar to conduct a departmental inquiry and submit a report in seven days, an official statement said.