The culprit was arrested after making what appeared to be a straightforward request for food and drink as Maharashtra Police stepped up their investigation into the alleged bus rape case in Pune.
On Friday, Pune police took 37-year-old Dattatray Ramdas Gade into custody. He was wanted for allegedly raping a woman inside a bus at Pune’s Swargate bus terminal early on Tuesday.
According to news agency PTI, a local family provided a vital tip that helped police apprehend the rape suspect, reviving the previously stopped manhunt. Following the event, police conducted a thorough search using sniffer dogs and drones, but Gade escaped detection until he approached a family for food and drink, which resulted in his arrest.
The police squad restarted the search after the family notified them of the accused’s location in the neighbourhood, according to Joint Commissioner of Police Ranjan Kumar Sharma. According to Pune police, the accused may have attempted suicide because of a ligature mark discovered on his neck.
The top official expressed gratitude to the Gunat village inhabitants who assisted the police throughout the search. Around midnight, Dattatray Ramdas Gade, the accused, was captured in Shirur tehsil from a paddy field.
After reportedly sexually abusing a 26-year-old woman inside a state transport bus at Swargate bus station early on Tuesday, Gade, a history sheeter, fled to his hometown of Shirur. In the districts of Pune and Ahilyanagar, Gade is implicated in six theft, robbery, and chain-snatching crimes.
Due to one of the charges, he has been free on bail since 2019. The culprit turned off his cell phone, but the police were still able to go to his village, according to sources quoted in a PTI story.