Gade was arrested by police from his native village of Gunat in Shirur taluka of Pune district around 1.10 am on Friday, following a rigorous three-day search operation.
A court remanded Dattatraya Ramdas Gade — who is accused of raping a woman at Swargate depot in Pune city — to police custody till 12 March. The police on Friday submitted before the court that the 26-year-old woman was raped twice by the accused in a government-run Shivshahi bus in the early hours of February 25.
Gade was arrested by police from his native village of Gunat in Shirur taluka of Pune district around 1.10 am on Friday, following a rigorous three-day search operation. He was placed under arrest after a medical examination at Sassoon hospital. A team that included senior police inspector Yuvraj Nandre produced Gade before a court of judicial magistrate (first class) T S Gaygole around 6.15 pm.
Police said, on the day of the incident, the victim had gone inside the bus with the accused Gade (37), as he allegedly gained her confidence by repeatedly calling her “tai” (sister). Defence lawyers claimed the accused did not rape the victim and that they had consensual physical relations.
Police submitted before the court that the victim had been waiting at Swargate bus depot to catch a bus to go to her hometown in Satara district around 5.30 am on the day of the incident. Police said Gade, who had been loitering at the bus depot, allegedly approached the victim and asked her “tai, kuthe challis tu? (sister, where are you headed?)”. As she replied, Gade allegedly told her that the bus for her hometown was parked at another location at the depot.
Police said that the accused Gade constantly calling her sister made the victim trust him, but he allegedly misled her and made her go with him to the Shivshahi bus (which commutes along the Swargate-Solapur route) in the depot.
Police said she found no lights inside the bus, but the accused told her that passengers might be sleeping and she could use a mobile phone light to see. Police said she put on the light to check the bus and found no passengers inside. So she told the accused “Dada, mala baher jau dya, mala ghari jayche ahe (Brother, let me go out of the bus, I have to go home)”.
The accused then allegedly raped her twice in the bus and fled the spot, leaving the victim crying. She got off the bus and boarded another one for her hometown. On reaching Hadapsar, she spoke to a male friend over the phone. He insisted she should approach the police.
