3 weeks Ago By Gitesh Shelke
Pune: Police have recorded statements of Solapur bus conductor and driver — the first people the Swargate rape survivor spoke to after the assault on Feb 25. The city crime branch officers traced and recorded statements of these two key witnesses, both from Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC)'s Solapur depot. The survivor spoke to them for about 50 seconds after stepping out of the parked Shivshahi bus, where the accused, Dattatraya Gade , raped her.
"The statements of these two witnesses are critical to establish the sequence of events related to the crime. They are the key witnesses in the case," Crime Branch inspector Shailesh Shanke said on Thursday. The Solapur bus conductor and driver had suggested the survivor, a health counsellor with a city hospital, to visit the police station.
The two had left the MSRTC bus stand after the survivor spoke to them. The police officer said it was necessary to record their statements because the health counsellor had reported the matter to them immediately after the incident. The health counsellor had gone to the Swargate bus depot early in the morning on February 25 to go to her native place in Phaltan, Satara.
CCTV footage showed the survivor speaking to the duo after getting down from the stationary bus, Shanke said. The investigators made painstaking efforts, such as examining details of 200 buses that visited the depot around the time of the incident, reviewing CCTV footage, and analysing over 400 phone details of conductors and drivers on these buses, to identify the two men from the Solapur depot whom the survivor spoke to. .
The accused Gade allegedly moved around MSRTC stands in Pune city and other places in the guise of a driver or conductor. "In this way, he struck a conversation with the survivor, took her to the stationary bus and raped her," Shanke said. Pune: Police have recorded statements of Solapur bus conductor and driver — the first people the Swargate rape survivor spoke to after the assault on Feb 25.
The city crime branch officers traced and recorded statements of these two key witnesses, both from Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC)'s Solapur depot. The survivor spoke to them for about 50 seconds after stepping out of the parked Shivshahi bus, where the accused, Dattatraya Gade, raped her. "The statements of these two witnesses are critical to establish the sequence of events related to the crime.
They are the key witnesses in the case," Crime Branch inspector Shailesh Shanke said on Thursday. The Solapur bus conductor and driver had suggested the survivor, a health counsellor with a city hospital, to visit the police station. The two had left the MSRTC bus stand after the survivor spoke to them.
The police officer said it was necessary to record their statements because the health counsellor had reported the matter to them immediately after the incident. The health counsellor had gone to the Swargate bus depot early in the morning on February 25 to go to her native place in Phaltan, Satara. CCTV footage showed the survivor speaking to the duo after getting down from the stationary bus, Shanke said.
The investigators made painstaking efforts, such as examining details of 200 buses that visited the depot around the time of the incident, reviewing CCTV footage, and analysing over 400 phone details of conductors and drivers on these buses, to identify the two men from the Solapur depot whom the survivor spoke to. . The accused Gade allegedly moved around MSRTC stands in Pune city and other places in the guise of a driver or conductor.
"In this way, he struck a conversation with the survivor, took her to the stationary bus and raped her," Shanke said..
