Dattatray Gade has been 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 cases. Gade’s family is very poor, living in a concrete house with a thatched roof in the Gunat village, 72 kilometres from Pune. 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. The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation does not have a Chief Security and Vigilance Officer (CSVO) and hasn’t had one since June 2022. Maharashtra Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik said he had asked the state home department to appoint an IPS officer to the position. He was allegedly working for the leader during the Assembly election campaign last year. He unsuccessfully contested for a local post in Gunatvillage. He is accused of raping a 26-year-old woman inside a state transport bus parked just 100 meters away from a police station.
