A court on Friday sent the accused in the Pune rape case to police custody till March 12, news agency PTI reported.
The 37-year-old accused, Dattatray Ramdas Gade, was nabbed from a paddy field following an extensive search operation carried out with the help of drones and sniffer dogs around midnight on Thursday in Shirur tehsil of Pune district, three days after the incident.
The rape accused, Dattatray Ramdas Gade, has been arrested in Shirur taluka of Pune district#Pune #punecrime pic.twitter.com/Vyl2KvvyAg
— Mid Day (@mid_day) February 28, 2025
He was formally arrested and produced before the Pune Sessions Court amid heavy police security, PTI reported.
The police submitted a remand application to the court and sought Gade`s custody for 14 days.
According to PTI, the police told the court that Gade engaged the 26-year-old survivor in conversation at the Swargate terminus on Tuesday morning, calling her `didi (elder sister)` and took her to an empty Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation`s (MSRTC) `Shiv Shahi` bus parked in the depot premises and raped her.
Gade, who faces half-a-dozen criminal cases in Pune and Ahilyanagar districts, is clearly seen in the CCTV footage of the bus terminus on the day of the Pune rape incident, the police said.
The data of the mobile phone he was using was yet to be recovered, they informed the court.
The police stated that out of the six cases registered against Gade, five of the complainants are women.
On the other side, Advocate Wajid Khan, appearing for Gade, told the court his client was facing a media trial and claimed that the survivor herself went inside the bus.
“A physical relationship was established [between them] with mutual consent,” Khan told the court.
Pune bus rape case | Defence lawyer Advocate Wajid Khan says, “He (Dattatray Ramdas Gade) has been sent to 12-day police custody. The earlier cases on him were of robbery, not rape. The Investigating Officer said that he is a habitual offender but he was not convicted in any of… pic.twitter.com/f4R3h0ggHQ
— ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2025
After listening to both the sides, the court remanded the accused in the Pune rape case in police custody till March 12.
Earlier in the day, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Pune Guardian Minister Ajit Pawar said the incident puts humanity to shame. “It is an incident that puts humanity to shame. Everyone was trying to arrest the accused soon. He was arrested around 1 am today. A thorough investigation is going on. He is going to be presented in court today. Everything will become clear after that… I spoke to the CP (Commissioner of Police) this morning. He told me that the accused was taken into custody at 1 am and is being questioned,” Pawar told mediapersons in Nanded.
(With PTI inputs)
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