27-04-2025
Bopdev Ghat gangrape: Third accused in police custody till May 2
A court in Pune on Sunday remanded the third accused in the Bopdev Ghat gang rape case to police custody till May 2 for further investigation.
The accused, Bapya, alias Somnath, alias Suraj Dashrath Gosavi (33), a resident of Katewadi in Baramati, was nabbed by a team of Pune Rural police from Akluj in Solapur district and then handed over to Pune City police.
He was then placed under arrest on Saturday night at Kondhwa police station for his alleged role in the gangrape of a 21-year-old woman at a secluded spot in Bopdev Ghat on the night of October 3.
Police produced him before a court on Sunday. Assistant public prosecutor Priyanka Vengurlekar sought his custody for seven days.
Police submitted his custodial interrogation was required to seize the weapon used for crime and jewellery he had robbed from the victim.
Police also said they want to conduct his medical examination, DNA test and recover the clothes he was wearing while committing the gangrape. Police said investigation was underway to determine where he was residing while he was on the run and since the commission of the offence and whether anybody provided shelter to him. The court then remanded him to police custody for five days.
The victim and her male friend, both college students and not natives of Pune, had gone to Bopdev Ghat area on a motorcycle, three men came to the spot on their bikes around 11 pm and allegedly threatened them with sharp weapons and robbed their valuables.
Police said the accused men tied the woman's male friend with his shirt and belt, and raped her in an isolated spot. An FIR in this case was lodged at Kondhwa police station. Following a meticulous probe into hundreds of CCTV videos, the police identified and arrested the accused Chandrakumar Raviprasad Kanojiya (20) of Dindori in Madhya Pradesh (MP), from Undri area of Pune city on October 11.
During further investigation, police arrested the second accused, Akhtar Babu Shaikh (27), alias Shoaib, from Prayagraj on October 14. But the third accused Suraj Gosavi had been on the run. Based on a creditable input, a team of Walchandnagar police station of Pune rural police detained Gosavi from Akluj town in Solapur on Saturday.
Police have booked the three accused under sections 70 (1), 126 (2), 115 (2), 309 (6), 352, 351 (2), 351 (3) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) and sections of the Arms Act.
A probe revealed all three of the accused in the rape case had been arrested in theft cases that took place outside Pune in the past.
