Pune Bus Rape Accused Arrested In Shirur After 70-Hour Search

The 37-year-old accused, identified as Dattatray Gade, was arrested by Pune police at around 1:30 AM from Pune’s Shirur tehsil.

Pune police on Friday arrested a man who allegedly raped a 26-year-old woman inside a bus at Pune’s Swargate bus station. The 37-year-old accused identified as Dattatray Gade was apprehended by the police at around 1:30 AM from a sugarcane field in Pune’s Shirur tehsil.

Gade, a history-sheeter, was arrested after nearly 70 hours of search. He allegedly raped a woman early morning on Tuesday inside a parked bus at the busy Swargate depot of the MSRTC in Pune city. He had been on the run since then. Following his arrest, he was brought to the Lashkar Police station in Pune.

The accused is named in half a dozen cases of theft, robbery, and chain-snatching in Pune and Ahilyanagar district. He committed the crime while he was out on bail since 2019 in one of the offences.

Nearly thirteen police teams had been deployed across the state to nab the accused.

Pune police on Thursday had also deployed sniffer dogs and drones as part of a search operation within the tracts of sugarcane crop located in Shirur.  

The victim was waiting for a bus to return home from work when the accused allegedly came to her and told her that the bus to her place had been parked somewhere else and took her near the parked bus, where he allegedly raped her, Zone 2, DCP Smarthana Patil said.

The victim is said to be in a stable condition, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had said that the accused would not be spared and assured strict action against those involved in the crime.

"Whoever the accused may be, no matter who they are, they will not be spared in Pune rape case. Strict action will be taken against them, and they will face severe punishment," he had said.