The Pune Police announced a ₹1 lakh reward for any information that would lead to the arrest of Dattatray Gade, the accused in the bus rape case. On Friday, they arrested the 37-year-old history-sheeter for allegedly rape a 26-year-old woman inside a stationary bus at Swargate bus station. A Pune Crime Branch team initially detained Gade in a village in Shirur Tehsil, Pune district, before formally arresting him, according to DCP Smarthana Patil, Zone 2, Pune City Police, as reported by ANI.
Pune Bus Rape Case: Accused Arrested After Massive Police Manhunt
13 police teams formed to nab accused: On Thursday, the Pune Police formed 13 teams to arrest Gade, who has been involved in multiple theft, robbery, and chain-snatching cases in Pune and Ahilyanagar districts. He has been out on bail since 2019 for one of the offences. Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar told PTI that they announced a ₹1 lakh reward for anyone providing information about the accused.
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Pune City and Pune Rural Police launched a search operation in Gunat village, searching sugarcane fields with drones and dog squads. More than 100 cops reached the village. Since the sugarcane fields were dense, they used drones for aerial surveillance and deployed a dog squad to assist in the search, a police official told HT.
The woman, who works as a counsellor at a Pune hospital, waited for a bus to her hometown, Phaltan in Satara district, at one of the platforms around 5:45 pm on Tuesday.
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Gade posed as a conductor, deceived the woman by calling her ‘didi,’ and directed her to another platform for her bus to Satara. He then led her to a dark, empty AC bus and convinced her it was the right one before he allegedly raped her. Maharashtra Minister of State for Home, Yogesh Kadam, blamed the depot manager and private security for their negligence but acknowledged the police’s role, stating that they had conducted patrolling at 1:30 am and 3:30 am on the day of the incident.
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