Drones, dogs, 13 police teams: How Pune bus rape accused Gade was caught
The accused fled to his native Shirur tehsil, where his request for food and water led to his final capture from a paddy field around midnight
A request for food and water from a house in his native Shirur tehsil led to the arrest of a 37-year-old man on the run after allegedly raping a woman inside a bus at Swargate bus station in Pune, police said on Friday (February 28).
The police used drones and sniffer dogs to track down the accused, Dattaray Ramdas Gade, who was hiding in a paddy field in his native Shirur tehsil and apprehended him around midnight, an official said.
Will be produced in court today
A senior police officer said, "Gade was brought to Pune by 2 am. He was sent for a medical examination and formally arrested. The accused will be produced in court later in the day."
Gade, a history-sheeter, fled to his native place in Shirur after allegedly sexually assaulting a 26-year-old woman inside a state transport bus at Swargate bus station in Pune in the early hours of Tuesday (February 25).
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According to sources, the accused switched off his mobile phone, but the police managed to reach his village and found out he had visited a house requesting for water.
13 teams, drones, dog squad
The Pune police on Thursday (February 27) deployed drones and a dog squad in Gunat village to nab the accused, and 13 teams comprising over 100 personnel were part of the search operation, an official said.
Joint commissioner of police Ranjan Kumar Sharma also visited the village and briefed his officers, he said.
"The search operation in sugarcane fields with drones and dog squads was stopped at night. However, we received information that Gade had visited a house asking for food. We rushed to the spot, but he managed to flee. The family in the house gave him a bottle of water," the official said.
The pursuit
The official said the family informed the police about the accused's presence in the area, after which the police team resumed the search. The police discovered that Gade had changed his shirt. They managed to obtain his used shirt, and the dogs used the scent to lead the police in his pursuit. It was finally the villagers who found Gade hiding near a canal, and the police took him into custody.
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He was transported directly to Pune, where the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Swargate Police Station formally arrested him.
Long history of criminal activities
Gade has a long history of criminal activities, and is named in half a dozen theft, extortion, and chain-snatching cases in Pune and Ahilyanagar districts. He has been out on bail since 2019 in one of the offences.
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He used to operate an informal taxi on the Pune-Ahilyanagar route, and was known to target elderly women. He would sweet-talk them into accepting a lift in his car, and would then take them to an isolated location, threaten them with a knife, grab their jewellery, and abandon them.
(With agency inputs)
