DRONES & DOGS TRACK AND NAIL PUNE RAPIST..! What Were His Links to NCP?
The chase, a high-tech thriller starring drones, sniffer dogs, and over 100 cops, finally pinned the serial crook in a sugarcane field near his relatives’ home in Shirur, late Thursday night.
A relentless 75-hour manhunt ended with the dramatic arrest of Dattatray Gade, the 37-year-old brute accused of raping a 26-year-old woman inside a bus at Pune’s Swargate depot. The chase, a high-tech thriller starring drones, sniffer dogs, and over 100 cops, finally pinned the serial crook in a sugarcane field near his relatives’ home in Shirur, late Thursday night.
It all kicked off when Gade slinked into a relative’s house at 10:30 PM, begging for water and confessing, “I’ve made a big mistake—I have to surrender.” His family, rattled, tipped off the police. A discarded shirt became the golden ticket: the dog squad caught his scent, hounding his trail through the fields. Drones buzzed overhead, scanning the 25-acre sugarcane sprawl, while villagers—fed up with his reign of terror—spotted him lurking near a canal. Cops swooped in, nabbing him before he could bolt again. By Friday morning, the Swargate Police’s Special Investigation Team had him in cuffs, hauling him back to Pune for justice.
Gade’s no stranger to crime. A history-sheeter with six cases—extortion, theft, robbery—across Shirur, Shikarpur, and Ahilyanagar, he’s been a menace since at least 2019. That year, he snagged a loan for a four-wheeler, turning it into a predatory taxi on the Pune-Ahilyanagar route. His MO? Luring elderly women with fake kindness, driving them to remote spots, flashing a blade, and stripping them of jewelry—once netting 140 grams of gold. Busted in 2020 for a Karde Ghat robbery, he did a measly five-to-six-month stint before wriggling out on bail, leaving a trail of pending cases in Shikarpur, Supa, Kedgaon, and Kotwali.
Outrage flared after Tuesday’s assault, with Maharashtra’s Deputy CM Eknath Shinde vowing capital punishment and MLA Nilesh Rane floating “encounter squads” for scum like Gade. The Rs 1 lakh reward Pune cops dangled only fueled the hunt’s fire. Beyond the thuggery, Gade dabbled in politics, cozying up to a bigwig during recent elections—snaps of their chumminess still haunt social media. He even ran for a local Samiti seat but flopped.
From cane-field hideout to custody, Gade’s luck ran dry. Now, as the SIT digs deeper, Pune prays this monster’s reign is finally over.
