The Pune Police on Friday detained the 37-year-old man who raped a woman inside a bus at Pune's Swargate bus station. The man, identified as Dattatray Gade, was apprehended from Shirur Tehsil by the special investigation team.
The probe team got a tip-off that Gade had visited a relative's house in Gunat village in Shirur district after fleeing from Pune. Police sources told local reporters that officers tracked him down to the house. He was detained at around 1:30 am.
Police said Gade arrived at his relative's house in the village around midnight asking for food and water. He begged for some food, but his relatives only offered him water. Gade then left the house but the family immediately alerted the police who began a search on the premises which culminated in his detention.
#UPDATE | Pune (Maharashtra) bus rape case | The accused, Dattatray Ramdas Gade, who was detained by a team of the Pune Crime Branch from a village in Shirur Tehsil of Pune district, has now been formally arrested as per DCP Smartana Patil, Zone 2, Pune City Police
— ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2025
(Video - Pune… pic.twitter.com/CP41zGknSK
After fleeing Pune, he had been hiding in the sugarcane field for two days, he told police. The police had already received information that he was hiding inside the 25-acre sugar cane in Maharashtra. An intensive search was launched by deploying a drone and dog squad for hours.
Gade is currently in the custody of the Swargate police which is conducting a thorough probe into the incident. The accused reportedly told police that he regretted what he had done in Pune.
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Pune Deputy Commissioner of Police Nikhil Pingle told reporters that the citizens of Gunat village also put in a lot of effort in this arrest operation.
His statement was recorded at Swargate Police Station after which he was taken to Sassoon Hospital for medical examination. He will be produced in Shivajinagar Court at 11 am.
Gade is named in half a dozen cases of theft, robbery and chain-snatching in Pune and Ahilyanagar districts. He has been out on bail since 2019 in one of the offences. Police had announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for information about Gade.
