PUNE: A 26-year-old preoperative counsellor with a city hospital was allegedly raped by a criminal on police records in a Shivshahi bus parked overnight at the MSRTC’s Swargate terminus around 5.30am on Tuesday.
The bus terminus, one of the biggest state transport facilities in the heart of Pune city, is located right opposite the Swargate police station and witnesses a daily footfall of 60,000 passengers and 600 bus movements connecting Mumbai, Solapur, Ahilyanagar, Kolhapur, Sangli and Satara, besides buses to and from Karnataka and Goa.
“The survivor is from Phaltan in Satara district and stays in Aundh. She works as a preoperative counsellor with a city hospital where she educates patients about their surgeries, including risks, benefits, and care arrangements, to help them prepare psychologically for surgeries and reduce anxiety. She reported the matter to police around 9.30am on Tuesday, following which she was referred to medical examination. After an initial inquiry, the FIR was lodged on Tuesday evening,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone II) Smartana Patil told TOI on Wednesday.
“We have identified the suspect, who has previous pending cases of theft and robbery to his name at Shikrapur and Shirur police stations in rural Pune. He is seen in CCTV camera footage stepping out of the bus along with the survivor. We have formed eight teams to trace and arrest him at the earliest. We suspect he might have been at the bus terminus for bag lifting,” the DCP said.
State transport minister Pratap Sarnaik directed senior MSRTC officials to conduct a departmental inquiry against the assistant traffic superintendent and depot manager of Swargate in connection with the incident.
Pune MSRTC’s divisional controller Pramod Nehul told TOI, “The (Shivshahi) bus belongs to Solapur depot and routinely operates on the Pune-Solapur route. It was parked overnight at Swargate, and its driver and conductor were at the resting room in the rear of the depot side. We came to know about the alleged incident when police contacted us.”
He said, “The Swargate depot has 20 CCTV cameras, and all are operational. Police checked the feed that had a picture of the alleged perpetrator taking the victim onto the bus. We are conducting an inquiry of our own to establish how the bus was kept unlocked and other issues.”
The incident caused a major public outrage across the state and evoked a strong reaction from politicians, including deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, NCP (SP) Baramati MP Supriya Sule, State Commission for Women chairperson Rupali Chakankar, NCP (SP) leader Jayant Patil and Shiv Sena’s Neelam Gorhe. They condemned the incident and called for strictest action against the perpetrator.
Angry Shiv Sena (UBT) supporters stormed the bus terminus, raising slogans to protest the incident and went on to vandalise the ticket booking cabin on the premises.
Nehul said, “Twenty-three security personnel have been removed from service on the grounds of lapse in security. An inquiry against two officers has been initiated.”
National Commission for Women’s chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar took suo motu cognizance of the incident and wrote to the state Director General of Police demanding immediate action in the matter. “The commission has strongly condemned the heinous crime, in which a 26- year-old woman was allegedly raped inside a stationary Shivshahi bus while waiting for transportation at Pune’s Swargate depot. Reports indicate that the accused is currently absconding, raising serious concerns about public safety and law enforcement measures,” she said.
NCW has sought a fair and time-bound investigation, leaving no room for delay or negligence and extension of all necessary support to the victim, including medical assistance, psychological counselling, and security to safeguard her well-being. It has called for the arrest of the accused at the earliest and has sought an action-taken report along with a copy of the FIR to within three days.
In the early hours of Tuesday, the survivor reached Swargate terminus for a usual trip to her home in Phaltan and was waiting at a spot from where she would routinely board an early morning bus.
DCP Patil said, “At this point, the suspect came there and struck up a casual conversation with her. He asked her where she was headed. A little later, he told her that an early morning Phaltan-bound bus was waiting in the nearby parking area where the travellers routinely got in to take an early seat. He then took her to the bus, but she wondered if anybody else had entered the bus, as there were no lights, no driver, no conductor around. The man asked her to get in and use her cellphone torch to check if people have taken seats. Soon after she entered the bus, the man followed her, bolted the door from inside and committed the crime.”
The DCP said, “After he left, the CCTV footage showed the woman boarding a bus to Phaltan. She got a call from her friend during the journey. She narrated the incident to the friend, who advised her to go back and report the matter to the police.”
After the survivor’s complaint, the police team started examining footage from all CCTV cameras installed across the bus terminus. “One of the cameras installed at the stand from where the buses to Phaltan go showed the survivor and the suspect talking to each other. We circulated the footage within our police units and got the first lead from our rural police counterparts, who identified the man as a criminal on their records. Another footage also showed the two entering the bus and later stepping out of the bus. The survivor told us that she was shocked to the extent that she was unable to raise an alarm when the culprit sexually assaulted her,” Patil said.
(The victim’s identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
(With inputs from Joy Sengupta)
