Pune Rape Case In Bus : How Accused Was Hunted Down

A 26-year-old woman was raped inside a parked Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus at Pune’s Swargate Bus Stand, 100 meters from a police station. The 26-year-old victim, a working woman in the medical field, was waiting for a bus to Phaltan in Satara district at Swargate bus station around 5:45 am on Tuesday. Gade approached her, addressing her as “didi” (sister) and falsely claiming that her bus was parked at a different platform.

Pune Rape Case In Bus How Accused Was Hunted Down

Why In News

• A 26-year-old woman was raped inside a parked Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus at Pune’s Swargate Bus Stand, 100 meters from a police station.

The Crime

• Gade frequently loitered around the Swargate bus depot, often presenting himself as a police officer. CCTV footage confirmed that he was wearing a formal shirt, pants, and shoes on the day of the crime.
• According to police sources, he even introduced himself as a police officer while speaking to the rape survivor, giving her a false name during their conversation.
• The 26-year-old victim, a working woman in the medical field, was waiting for a bus to Phaltan in Satara district at Swargate bus station around 5:45 am on Tuesday. Gade approached her, addressing her as “didi” (sister) and falsely claiming that her bus was parked at a different platform.

• He then led her to an empty Shiv Shahi AC bus, convincing her that it was the right one. As she hesitated to board the darkened vehicle, he reassured her, only to follow her inside and commit the crime. She then boarded another bus, on which her friend was travelling. The woman informed her friend that she had been raped. The friend quickly advised the woman to contact the police.
• According to the police, the bus in which the incident took place has been vandalised. The police stated that they filed a complaint and retrieved the CCTV footage, getting their probe underway.

Investigation

• The suspect, identified as Dattatraya Ramdas Gade, 37, a resident of Gunat village in Shirur, had been on the run since Tuesday, when the alleged attack took place in the Swargate depot, one of Pune’s busiest.
• When he was arrested, Gade was out on bail and living with his family, including his wife, young son, brother, and parents in Gunat.

• The police had launched a massive search for Gade, deploying drones and 13 police teams comprising over 100 personnel across Pune district and beyond. A breakthrough came when he arrived at the house of a relative at 10:30 pm on Thursday.

• His relatives, upon learning of his arrival, alerted the police. The police team discovered a changed shirt, which they used to provide the dog squad with Gade’s scent. The dogs led the police along his escape route. Gade hid in a sugarcane field near a canal close to his relatives’ house. Ultimately, it was the villagers who found Gade in the canal.

• Once they identified him, police swiftly took him into custody. From there, he was transported directly to Pune, where the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Swargate Police Station formally arrested him.
• As per the reports, Ramdas has a history of theft and chain-snatching cases and was out on bail since 2019.

The Aftermath

• The incident sparked widespread outrage across Maharashtra. On Thursday, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said that the government would push for the maximum possible punishment for Gade, including capital punishment. Shiv Sena MLA Nilesh Rane even suggested reviving police “encounter squads” to deal with repeat offenders. The Pune police had earlier announced a Rs 1 lakh reward for any information leading to Gade’s arrest.

• The case has also sparked a debate on rape laws in India. Former Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud even cited the “Nirbhaya” case in Delhi – the brutal gang-rape and murder of a woman inside a bus in Delhi in 2012 that led to nationwide protests.

• “A lot of changes were made in the laws following the ‘Nirbhaya’ incident, however, we can not prevent such incident by only having laws,” the former chief justice said yesterday.
• Maharashtra’s Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik ordered a security audit of all bus depots across the state. He also directed that all unauthorised buses and vehicles seized by transport authorities be removed from depots by April 15.
• Mr Sarnaik called for the deployment of more female security guards at bus stands, citing the increasing number of women passengers. Additionally, he proposed the appointment of an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer to the vacant post of Chief Security and Vigilance Officer for the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC).

• In response to public anger, Mr Sarnaik also launched a departmental inquiry against the Assistant Transport Superintendent and the Bus Depot Manager at Swargate, holding them accountable for security lapses that enabled such an incident to occur.