Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 27: Even as the Maharashtra police gave launched a massive manhunt to nab the accused in the Pune bus-rape case, another gory incident of a brutal rape of a five-year old has come from Madhya Pradesh where the victim is still battling for her life after the horrific sexual assault.
The doctors at Gwalior’s Kamala Raja Hospital said on Thursday that she needed 28 stitches in her private parts, and an operation for colostomy. The accused is a 17-year-old who has been arrested and is being tried as a juvenile, the police said.
The police said the accused, apparently drunk at the time, had slammed her head against a wall several times and then brutalised her. Apart from the head injuries, her body and private parts bore multiple cuts and scratches and bite marks.
The child, whom doctors stabilised after a two-hour operation, is still critical. Though she is conscious, she has not spoken since the assault, which took place five days ago. The child, a resident of Shivpuri, had gone missing on February 23. She was found almost two hours later on the terrace of a house in the neighbourhood, unconscious and covered in blood.
Her family has called for death sentence of the accused. “He should be shot openly on the road,” her mother said. Angry locals, backed by political parties, have held protests and demonstrations in the area. The unprecedented brutality has wiped out political barriers. Leaders of the Congress and the BJP have asked for a fast-track court and death penalty for the accused. The leaders have submitted a memorandum to the district administration.
In Pune, the accused on the run after allegedly raping a young woman – 100 metres from a police station and in a bus parked inside the city’s bus Swargate Bus Stand – is believed to be hiding in a field full of sugarcane plants near his hometown, police sources said on Thursday. The police have announced a reward of Rs one lakh to anyone who can give information about his whereabouts.
Sources said the police had deployed sniffer dogs and drones as part of an ongoing search operation within the vast tracts of sugarcane crop. Drones are required because each plant can grow up to 10 feet in height, making it difficult, if not impossible, for police teams to search the farmed area on foot.
Sources also said the man – identified as Dattatraya Ramdas Gade – slipped through the dragnet thrown around the city by hiding in a truck carrying vegetables. He made his way to his hometown, where he changed his clothes and shoes. The police had set up 13 special teams, including eight from the Crime Branch, to track him down, and spoke to family members and known associates.
The Maharashtra minister of state for home Yogesh Kadam said Gade’s ‘probable location’ had been found. The deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde has vowed justice for the woman and said Gade would not be spared. He echoed fellow Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s call for capital punishment. “Such people should be hanged,” he said.
The rape took place between 5.45 am and 6 am on Tuesday in a Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation bus parked in the bus depot. The young woman, a domestic, was waiting to board a bus to her hometown in Satara district when she was accosted by Gade, who, she told the cops, addressed her as ‘didi‘, or ‘sister’. She said Gade inquired after her destination and persuaded her that a bus parked in one corner of the busy depot would take her there. CCTV footage showed the two walking to that bus.
Outside the bus – which had no lights on – the woman said she hesitated but was told that was because other passengers on board were asleep. She was encouraged to enter the bus. She told the cops Gade jumped in after her, locked the door, and raped her. After the assault Gade slunk away and the woman told a friend, who convinced her to file a police report.
The police said they had equally immediately filed a complaint and accessed the CCTV footage, which jumpstarted their investigation, which will include inquiries into how and why the bus depot management allowed this to happen in their premises and on their bus.
The MSRTC under fire for poor security – has replaced guards at the depot and announced an inquiry of its own, with a report to be filed in a week. The MSRTC is one of the three public transport bodies in the country, with a fleet of more than 14,000 buses. Every day, more than 55 lakh passengers travel on its buses. Gade, 36, has a prior criminal record; he is charged with at least six counts of theft, robbery, and chain-snatching in Pune and the neighbouring Ahilyanagar district. He has been out on bail since 2019.
Mr Kadam said the security guards at Swargate MSRTC bus terminal were provided by a private agency through the corporation and the depot manager should have been more alert. He hastened to add that he was not claiming the police had no role in preventing such incidents.
“A team under senior inspector of Swargate police station had carried out patrolling in the area from 1:30am and also at 3:30am (on the day of the incident. They (corporation) have not kept tight security so it is the responsibility of the depot manager. He should have checked the functioning of the guards. Providing round the clock security is the responsibility of the MSRTC, which has hired the guards and pays their salaries,” Mr Kadam claimed.
Asked about the MSRTC earlier writing to the police about anti-social elements at Swargate bus depot, Mr Kadam asserted “you cannot run away (from responsibility of security at the facility) by submitting a letter.” “A pervert sweet talks and brainwashes a woman. There is no argument or use of force. Whatever happened, happened silently. So people around could not be alerted. So instead of indulging in a blame game, let the accused be arrested so that the situation gets clear,” the State Minister added.
“The incident took place at 6 a.m. and the victim complained to police at 9am. As soon as the complaint was received, the accused was identified and tracked through CCTV. He has absconded. We know he took a bus to flee after going through CCTV footage,” Mr Kadam added.
Mr Kadam said it was not the time for a blame game but asserted the incident could have been prevented if the security at the bus terminal, a busy one in the state’s second largest city, was up to the mark. Speaking about the coordination between the police and MSRTC apparatus, he said a discussion was held with transport minister Pratap Sarnaik on Wednesday on whether police marshals can be deployed at sensitive places.
