Pune, Feb 28 (IANS) The bounty reward in the arrest case of Dattatray Gade, the accused in the Pune bus rape matter, will be given to last informant, said Pune Police Commissioner on Friday, adding that they are also probing whether the accused tried to commit suicide after the crime.
Hours after the arrest of Gade from his native village Gunat in Maharashtra’s Shirur taluka, the Pune Commissioner of Police, Amritesh Kumar, thanked the villagers for extending cooperation to the teams in nabbing the accused involved in the rape of a 26-year-old woman inside the state transport bus in Swargate bus depot.
Kumar said the police would give a reward of Rs one lakh to the last informant from the village. He also announced that the police will felicitate the villagers for the manner in which they cooperated with the police during the search operation. He said the accused would be produced in the court during the day.
“After checking 23 CCTV cameras in the state transport bus depot and 48 CCTV footage outside the depot, we identified the accused within one and a half to two hours. For the last two days, we have been conducting the search operation. But the accused was not found. Finally, the police teams succeeded in arresting him today. We will visit that village and felicitate the citizens. We will specially congratulate the people who helped there,” said Kumar.
“Based on the inputs we received from the last information, the accused was detained. The tip was that Gade had come to drink water somewhere and later ran away. That came in handy for the police to arrest him with the help of a drone. That last informant will be rewarded with Rs one lakh as announced earlier,” said the police commissioner.
He further added that the police will consider what they can do further for the villagers.
“According to the initial medical examination, there are rope knots around the neck of the accused. The accused has said that he tried to commit suicide after he raped the 26 year old woman. However, he survived because the rope broke and other people came near the bus,” said Kumar.
He further said, “A team will be sent there to investigate whether he actually attempted to commit a suicide. But, according to the initial medical examination, there was a rope mark around his neck.”
Meanwhile, Maharashtra State Commission for Women chairperson Rupali Chakankar hailed the police action, saying that the Commission is pursuing the case to get the accused a death sentence.
–IANS
sj/dpb
