2 weeks Ago By Asseem Shaikh
Pune: The Pune police's crime branch carried out a rare sound output panchnama as part of their investigation into the Swargate bus rape case to find out if a shout for help could be heard outside the bus. The findings of this exercise assume significance in the wake of the claims by lawyers representing the accused, Dattatray Gade , that it was a consensual relationship and that the survivor did not raise any alarm. Gade (37) hails from Gunat village in Shirur taluka of Pune district.
A policewoman was used as a dummy candidate inside a Shivshahi bus, parked at the spot where the crime occurred, to shout for help from inside an air-conditioned bus with curtains drawn. Two private noise pollution experts were told to measure her voice and also the sounds around the bus. "The policewoman shouted for around 10 minutes as part of the exercise, and the experts concluded that her voice was not audible outside the bus," crime branch senior inspector Shailesh Sankhe, the investigating officer, told TOI.
Sankhe said there are certain panchnamas common in criminal investigations like search, seizure, recovery, discovery, arrest, inquest, and test identification parade, but senior officials suggested drawing up a rare panchnama to find out if the survivor's voice could be heard outside the bus. The police officer explained, "We picked a woman police officer and instructed her to shout loudly and use the same words to raise an alarm which the survivor mentioned in the first information report registered with the Swargate police station." He said they recreated the crime scene by instructing the MSRTC officials to park the Shivshahi bus at the same spot between two buses.
"We then reached the place at the same time as the incident. The woman cop boarded the air-conditioned bus with two doors, which was airtight and watertight, and reached the spot where the survivor was raped. She started screaming loudly for 10 minutes after receiving a signal from the experts," he said.
Sankhe said the experts collected four samples and measured them from all sides of the bus and concluded that her shouts could not be heard outside the bus. The sound output panchnama and the reports of the test identification parade of the accused conducted at the Yerawada Central Prison and the forensic experts would form part of the chargesheets after it is received, he said, adding it would be filed in a magisterial court as soon as possible. The crime branch has invoked charges of repeated rape, voluntarily causing hurt, and wrongful confinement against Gade who is accused of sexually assaulting a 26-year-old health counsellor in a Shivshahi bus parked on the premises of the MSRTC's Swargate bus terminus on February.
Gade is under judicial custody at Yerawada Central Prison. Pune: The Pune police's crime branch carried out a rare sound output panchnama as part of their investigation into the Swargate bus rape case to find out if a shout for help could be heard outside the bus. The findings of this exercise assume significance in the wake of the claims by lawyers representing the accused, Dattatray Gade, that it was a consensual relationship and that the survivor did not raise any alarm.
Gade (37) hails from Gunat village in Shirur taluka of Pune district. A policewoman was used as a dummy candidate inside a Shivshahi bus, parked at the spot where the crime occurred, to shout for help from inside an air-conditioned bus with curtains drawn. Two private noise pollution experts were told to measure her voice and also the sounds around the bus.
"The policewoman shouted for around 10 minutes as part of the exercise, and the experts concluded that her voice was not audible outside the bus," crime branch senior inspector Shailesh Sankhe, the investigating officer, told TOI. Sankhe said there are certain panchnamas common in criminal investigations like search, seizure, recovery, discovery, arrest, inquest, and test identification parade, but senior officials suggested drawing up a rare panchnama to find out if the survivor's voice could be heard outside the bus. The police officer explained, "We picked a woman police officer and instructed her to shout loudly and use the same words to raise an alarm which the survivor mentioned in the first information report registered with the Swargate police station.
" He said they recreated the crime scene by instructing the MSRTC officials to park the Shivshahi bus at the same spot between two buses. "We then reached the place at the same time as the incident. The woman cop boarded the air-conditioned bus with two doors, which was airtight and watertight, and reached the spot where the survivor was raped.
She started screaming loudly for 10 minutes after receiving a signal from the experts," he said. Sankhe said the experts collected four samples and measured them from all sides of the bus and concluded that her shouts could not be heard outside the bus. The sound output panchnama and the reports of the test identification parade of the accused conducted at the Yerawada Central Prison and the forensic experts would form part of the chargesheets after it is received, he said, adding it would be filed in a magisterial court as soon as possible.
The crime branch has invoked charges of repeated rape, voluntarily causing hurt, and wrongful confinement against Gade who is accused of sexually assaulting a 26-year-old health counsellor in a Shivshahi bus parked on the premises of the MSRTC's Swargate bus terminus on February. Gade is under judicial custody at Yerawada Central Prison..
