A court on Friday sent a 37-year-old man accused of raping a woman inside an empty parked state transport bus at Swargate depot in Pune city to police custody till March 12.
The 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.
He was formally arrested and produced before the Pune Sessions Court amid heavy police security.
The police submitted a remand application to the court and sought Gade's custody for 14 days.
They told the court the accused engaged the 26-year-old victim in conversation at the Swargate terminus on Tuesday morning, calling her 'didi' (sister) and took her to an empty 'Shiv Shahi' bus parked in the depot premises where he raped her twice.
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 incident, according to the police.
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 half a dozen cases registered against Gade, women are complainants in five of them.
On the other side, advocate Wajid Khan, appearing for the accused, told the court his client was facing a media trial and claimed the complainant herself went inside the bus.
"A physical relationship was established (between them) with mutual consent," Khan told the court.
The court, after listening to both sides, remanded Gade to police custody till March 12.
Catching the accused
The accused was caught after a massive manhunt involving drones, sniffer dogs, 13 teams and human intelligence.
Dattatray Ramdas Gade, on the run after raping the 26-year-old woman inside the empty bus on Tuesday morning, was tracked down in an agriculture field full of crops near his native Gunat village under Shirur tehsil of Pune district with the help of drones and sniffer dogs at around midnight on Thursday, police officials said.
Drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras were used in the search operation, due to which police were able to see aerial photos of the field where he was hiding, they said.
He was formally arrested and produced before the Pune sessions court which remanded him to police custody till March 12 after hearing arguments of defence and prosecution lawyers.
The police submitted a remand application to the court and sought Gade's custody for 14 days, while his lawyer Wajid Khan claimed the woman herself went inside the parked bus and "a physical relationship was established (between them) with mutual consent." Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who holds the home portfolio, informed Gade was tracked and nabbed by police using different technologies.
"The accused was in hiding. The police tracked him using different technologies. The details of the entire incident and sequence will be unearthed. It is not the right to reveal information at this stage. It will be revealed at the right stage," Fadnavis told reporters in Mumbai.
The police have said a ligature mark was found on the accused's neck, raising suspicion that he might have attempted suicide.
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