Pune: A sessions court in the city on Aug 18 rejected the second bail application filed by Dattatray Gade (37), the accused in the Swargate bus rape case.“There is no change in circumstances to grant bail to Gade. He is involved in a serious crime against a woman. Under such aggravating circumstances, I am of the opinion that he is not entitled to be released on bail,” additional sessions judge Aniruddha Gandhi said in his seven-page order.The judge issued a production warrant directing the superintendent of Yerawada Central Jail to produce Gade before the court on Sept 9 to frame charges to commence trial. Gade’s first bail plea was rejected on June 30.Special public prosecutor Ajay Misar told TOI on Saturday that the charges relating to repeated sexual assault would be framed against Gade under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Gade would be given an opportunity for a hearing to allow or deny certain documents to be admitted in evidence under section 294 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), he said.Misar said under section 183 of the BNSS, the rape survivor’s statement could be recorded in camera (privately), ensuring confidentiality and a safe environment for her. The survivor, a 26-year-old preoperative counsellor with a city hospital, was allegedly raped by Gade, a criminal on police records, in a Shivshahi bus that was parked overnight on the premises of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation’s Swargate bus terminus around 5.30 am on Feb 25. Gade hails from Gunat village in Shirur taluka of Pune district.In an earlier hearing on the second bail petition, Misar told the court that the victim identified Gade during the test identification parade at Yerawada jail. The forensic reports, including DNA sampling, confirmed Gade’s involvement, and he was prone to watching porn sites, he said.The prosecutor cited the chargesheet to show Gade’s Google search history between March 12, 2024, and Feb 25, 2025, conducted in the presence of panchas, revealed that he searched 22,061 porn videos. Gade was a habitual offender, and the prosecution listed all the previous six criminal cases that involved Gade apart from the present case, Misar said.Gade’s lawyer, Wajid Khan-Bidkar, sought bail on grounds that the city police crime branch had completed the investigation and filed a chargesheet, and there were no eyewitnesses to the incident. Gade was not absconding, and his phone was misused by village boys to watch porn videos, he said. The incident was a case of consensual sex, there was a delay in registering the FIR, and it was highly improbable that the rape could have taken place at a crowded bus stand, the lawyer told the court. On Saturday, Bidkar told TOI that he would file a petition in the Bombay high court to seek bail.
