Pune assault: Accused arrested after 70 hours of extensive manhunt
The accused in the Pune assault on February 25, was arrested from a village in Shirur Tehsil of Pune district on Friday.
Pune: The accused in the Pune assault, who was detained by a team of the Pune Crime Branch from a village in Shirur Tehsil of Pune district at around 6.am on Friday has now been formally arrested. DCP Smarthana Patil, Zone 2, Pune City Police, stated that the accused, Dattatray Ramdas Gade, has been formally arrested.
He was arrested for sexually harassing a girl at the Pune’s Swargate bus station. 13 police teams were deployed at several locations in a manhunt to nab the accused in Maharashtra. Police had also taken the help of sniffer dogs and drones to arrest the accused. The Pune City and Pune Rural Police had launched a search operation in Gunat village including in the sugarcane fields. Earlier the Pune Police had issued a monetary reward of Rs 1 lakh for those who provide information about the accused.
A number was also issued by the Pune police and it was assured that the identity of the informer would not be disclosed to anyone. The police acted at its toes and arrested the accused in the Pune assault case.
The accused Dattatray Ramdas Gade was absconding since the incident happened on Tuesday, when the survivor, a working woman, was waiting for a bus to return home to Phaltan, which is located around 100 km away. The incident happened on February 25, inside an isolated parked bus.
The accused allegedly approached her, falsely claiming that the bus to her destination was parked elsewhere. He led her to a MSRTC Shivsahi bus parked in the depot, where he allegedly raped her. Meanwhile, State Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik has ordered an immediate security audit of all bus stands and depots across the state.
As per a release issued on Thursday, the minister has also instructed that all registered buses parked at bus stations and depots and vehicles seized by transport offices be removed by April 15. Considering the rising number of female passengers, Minister Sarnaik emphasised the need to increase the number of female security guards at bus stations.
