Dattatray Ramdas Gade was accused of sexually assaulting a woman inside a Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus at Swargate depot in Pune city. On Friday, the court was addressed by the police that the woman had been raped twice by the accused. The police said that the victim had been lured under false pretenses of guidance and safety by the accused. On the 25th of February, during her wait to go to her hometown in the district of Satara, the police stated that the accused had been lingering in the area until he spoke to the victim, repeatedly calling her “tai” which means sister, ultimately gaining her trust. He allegedly told her that the bus that would take her to her hometown was located somewhere else at the depot, she was made to go with him to the Shivshahi bus. The police then said that she was led to believe that the bus was inhabited, and that the passengers were asleep. There were no passengers on the bus, and she asked him to let her leave so that she could go home. The accused proceeded to rape her twice before fleeing the location. When the victim reached Hadapsar, her friend that she was on a call with asked her to go to the police. She filed an FIR at the Swargate police station at around 9 in the morning. The accused was booked under sections 64, 351(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). The accused was identified by the police through visuals captured by the CCTV cameras at the Swargate bus depot, among other places.

The defense lawyers that came to court on behalf of the accused held the claim that the accused had not forced the victim, and that they engaged in sexual relations consensually, so it cannot be called rape. Advocate Sajid’s argument was that the previous crimes committed by him were not against women, but comprised of robberies and thefts. The defense lawyers contended that police custody for two days was ample. The accused has been confined to police custody by the court till March 12th as investigations continue. The accused was produced in a filled courtroom for the case hearing on Friday. Gade’s defense lawyer, Wajid Khan said, "…It was 5.45am in the morning. She could have shouted and sought help. Nothing was done forcefully."

When the accused fled from the scene of the crime, it was found that he had attempted suicide on Thursday night where he tried to hang himself from a tree near his hiding place (a sugarcane field). The accused confessed his attempts to the investigators when questioned about the marks on his neck, the Pune police commissioner reported on Friday. The manhunt led the police to Gunat village in Shirur, where the accused was arrested at 1:10 in the morning on Friday. Gade was taken to Pune by 2 in the morning; he went through a medical examination and was then taken into custody before being taken to the court.  

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