Pune machete attacker in police custody for 4 days, probe to look at past contact with victim woman

The woman's friend, with whom she was riding pillion when they were attacked by the accused, also suffered injuries to his hand in the incident but is out of danger after preliminary treatment.

A man, armed with a machete, attacked a 19-year-old college student in Pune’s Sadashiv Peth on Tuesday morning, injuring her. (Express photo)

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The 21-year-old man arrested for allegedly attacking a woman with a machete in the Sadashiv Peth area of Pune was remanded in police custody for four days till July 1 by a court Wednesday. Officials said, as part of the investigation, the police will probe past communication between the 20-year-old victim woman and the assailant, the sequence of events leading to the attack and how the suspect got his hands on the machete.

The woman’s friend, with whom she was riding pillion when they were attacked by the accused, Shantanu Jadhav, also suffered injuries to his hand in the incident but is out of danger after preliminary treatment, said Senior Inspector Dadasaheb Gaikwad, in-charge of the Vishrambag police station.

The incident occurred around 10 am Tuesday near the Perugate police chowky of the Vishrambag police station and was caught on security cameras installed in the area. The woman was on the way to her college and was riding a pillion on the bike of a male friend. According to her, Jadhav had been following them, asking her to talk to him.

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Jadhav, who is a third-year student of Bachelor of Commerce degree at a Pune college, is a resident of the Dongargaon village in the Mulshi area of Pune district. The victim is pursuing an interior designing course at a college in Pune. She sustained injuries to her head and hand, the police said.

CCTV footage of the incident shows that at one point, the rider stopped and had a heated exchange of words with Jadhav. Moments later, Jadhav took out a machete from his bag and charged at the woman and her friend. The rider then ran away from the spot after resisting some blows by Jadhav. The girl also started running and was chased by the attacker armed with the machete.

Some people present on the road ran in to intervene. After chasing her for some distance, Jadhav struck her on her head, after which she fell on the ground, the police said. By then, some other youths had attempted to stop Jadhav and take away his machete. Jadhav, however, managed to strike her again before he was overpowered and later handed over to the police.

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