Pune Rape Accused Arrested After 75 Hours Of Manhunt, Cops Used Drones, Dogs

Dattatraya Ramdas Gade, the man accused of allegedly raping a 26-year-old woman inside a bus at Pune's Swargate bus station, has been arrested on Friday.

Gade was arrested from the Shrirur Tehsil after nearly 75 hours of a manhunt.

The woman was raped on Tuesday morning, 100 metres from a police station and in a bus at the city's Swargate Bus Stand - one of the largest bus depots of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC). The incident took place between 5.45 am and 6 am when the victim was waiting to board a bus to her hometown in the Satara district.

According to the survivor, the accused initially engaged her in a conversation, calling her 'didi' (sister). He told her that the bus for Satara had arrived at another platform and then took her to an empty bus (Shiv Shahi AC bus) parked on the premises. As the lights inside the bus were not switched on, she hesitated to get in, but the man convinced her that it was the right vehicle, the victim who works in the medical field said.

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As she boarded the bus, Gade followed her and raped her.

Gade had been on the run since then.

Sources told NDTV that the accused had posed as a policeman for several months. The 37-year-old accused, a resident of Gunat village in Pune, is also named in half a dozen cases of theft, robbery, and chain snatching in the Pune and Ahilyanagar districts. He has been out on bail since 2019 in one of the offences.

How the accused was arrested 

A total of 13 police teams were deployed at various locations around Maharashtra to arrest the accused. Sniffer dogs and drones were also deployed as a part of the search operation. Pune City and Pune Rural Police had launched a search operation in Gunat village, including in sugarcane fields.

The Pune police had earlier issued a monetary reward of Rs 1 lakh for those who provide information on the accused's whereabouts. Another police official said the information could be shared at 020-24442769 or 9881670659, assuring that the informer's identity would be kept secret.