Pune: Third Accused in Bopdev Ghat Gang Rape Case Arrested from Akluj
Pune, 27th April 2025: In a major breakthrough, Pune Rural police on Saturday evening apprehended the third accused in the Bopdev Ghat gang rape case from the old bus stand at Akluj in Solapur district. The accused, identified as Suraj alias Bapu Dashrath Gosavi (33), a casual laborer from Bhavaninagar Sansar in Indapur, was nabbed just before he could board a bus, officials said.
Assistant Police Inspector Rajkumar Dunge from Walchandnagar Police Station, who was part of the team that caught Gosavi, said, “We were investigating a separate case involving a murder suspect when an informant alerted us about Gosavi’s presence at the old bus stand. Acting swiftly, we reached the spot within 40 minutes and detained him. His custody was later handed over to the Pune City Police Crime Branch for further action.”
Gosavi had been evading arrest since his name surfaced in the October 3, 2024 gang rape of a 20-year-old event management student at Bopdev Ghat, committed alongside two other men. The Pune police had filed a chargesheet against the two arrested accused — Chandrakumar Raviprasad Kanaujia (20) and Shoaib alias Akhtar Babu Shaikh — within 60 days of the incident, listing Gosavi as an absconding accused.
Commenting on the development, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Shailesh Balkawade said, “We plan to seek Gosavi’s custodial remand to gather additional evidence and file a supplementary chargesheet. Multiple teams had been working for months to locate him. Credit goes to the rural police for successfully tracking him down.”
Investigators revealed that Gosavi had been constantly moving across Solapur, Pandharpur, and Kolhapur, taking up odd jobs to survive.
According to API Dunge, “He avoided using mobile phones or social media, deserted his wife, and completely cut off contact with his family to stay hidden. He even spent nights in open farm fields to escape detection.”
The horrifying assault had taken place when the survivor, originally from Gujarat and pursuing her studies in Pune, along with her friend, a chartered accountancy student from north Maharashtra, visited Bopdev Ghat late at night. Around midnight, the trio allegedly attacked them near ‘Table Point’, assaulted the male friend by tying him up with his trouser belt, and then took turns raping the young woman. They also robbed her of her gold jewelry.
Following the incident, Kanaujia, a laborer from Kadnagar in Undri, was arrested on October 11, 2024, while Shaikh, a ragpicker from Adarshnagar, Mantarwadi near Phursungi, was apprehended from Prayagraj three days later. Investigators had identified Shaikh as the main instigator of the crime.
