The Pune sessions court has granted police custody till October 15 to the accused Chandrakumar Ravi Prasad Kanojia (20, Res. Dindori, Madhya Pradesh) involved in the Bopdev Ghat rape case. The Pune Police Crime had apprehended one of the three accused from Pune on October 11.
The three accused were on the run since October 3 after allegedly raping a 21-year-old girl after assaulting and tying her male friend to a tree at a secluded place in Bopdev Ghat.
The Pune Police Crime Branch officials initiated a search operation for the accused however faced significant challenges as the ghat area did not have proper CCTV coverage and no mobile network. The investigation team however used traditional on-ground tracking and investigation methods to track down the accused.
The accused being on record criminals previously booked for various crimes including theft and dacoit, were successful in hiding as they used smaller village roads used for foot travel which is not covered by CCTV cameras.
Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar stated “ We found clear CCTV footage of the accused from a hotel and petrol pump after a detailed and meticulous investigation. After matching the accused profile from the CCTV footage the sketch and the CCTNS records we realised they are on record criminals. We recovered their mobile numbers from the police record and tracked their phone the last location was found near Saswad. The accused were smart enough to not take the main road and travelled internal village roads where they could not be tracked. We used a drone to map the area and the internal roads. The accused were together and separated after October 4 when they realised that an FIR was registered.”
“ The arrested accused travelled back to Pune however, he did not visit his residence. We tracked him down to the Warje area and apprehended him on Friday at around 4 am. Further probe revealed that all the accused do odd jobs like labour and scrap collectors and originally hail from Jablpur in Madhya Pradesh. The accused had consumed alcohol before the crime and a CCTV footage of the same has been recovered by the police,” added Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar.
The arrested accused was produced before the court and has been granted police custody till October 11 for further investigation.