A serial offender, the Pune bus rape accused Dattatray Gade had often robbed passengers he took on his car that he operated as a taxi. The serial offender was detained in Maharashtra’s Shirur for the alleged rape of a 26-year-old woman inside a state transport bus parked just 100 meters away from Pune’s Swargate police station.

Gade would often be seen around the Swargate bus station, where the incident unfolded on Tuesday, where he would introduce himself as a policeman to people, as per sources. He also introduced himself as a cop to the victim, sources further added.

Gade is also named in half a dozen cases of theft, robbery and chain-snatching in Pune and Ahilyanagar district. He has been out on bail since 2019 in one of the offences.

However, it emerged during investigation by Shirur police and local crime investigation team that he had purchased a four-wheeler on loan in 2019. He would operate the vehicle as a taxi on the Pune-Ahilyanagar route. He would allegedly offer to drop heavily-adorned elderly women home, take them to a deserted place near the highway and rob them on knifepoint. He would then abandon them at the spot and flee with their belongings.

In fact, he served five to six months in jail for a robbery in Shirur’s Karde Ghat in 2020.

Gade’s family is very poor, living in a concrete house with a thatched roof on the Gunat village. His parents work on their agricultural land to fend for themselves. Among his family in the village are his brother, wife and young children. As per villagers in Gunat, Gade started the liquor and taxi businesses to earn quick money.

Questions were also raised about Gade’s picture appearing on a banner featuring Ashok Pawar, former MLA of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP). He was allegedly working for the leader during the Assembly election campaign last year. Gade unsuccessfully contested for the post of Sangharsh-Mukti Samiti of Gunat village.

It has also come to light that the incident was reported at a time the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation does not have a Chief Security and Vigilance Officer (CSVO) since June 2022. State Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik said a proposal will be sent to the state home department for appointment of an IPS officer to the position.