Pune rampage: Santosh Mane was normal, say police
Crime branch officials say ST driver was careful in dodging heavy vehicles and targeting small ones on fateful day.
Santosh Maruti Mane, 39, whose joyride of death on Wednesday had killed eight people, injured several others and damaged over 40 vehicles, was reported to be experiencing mood swings. Mane, driving a Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus, had wrecked havoc in various parts of the city.
According to the cops, Mane was fuming in anger when he was apprehended by the cops, but as the day progressed he broke down and shed copious tears.
The reason behind Mane’s gruesome act is still not known. Even as the driver is currently being examined by a team of doctors from the psychiatry department of Sassoon General Hospital, the police had witnessed Mane’s mood swings on Wednesday.
A Pune police crime branch official said Mane gave irrelevant answers during the interrogation.
“We asked his name and he replied Sharad Pawar. He told us that a war is going on in front of his eyes and, at one point of time, he said that he was experiencing total blackout. When we tried to know what he was thinking when he was on the rampage, Mane said that he wanted to destroy everything,” a senior police officer told DNA.
As the day progressed, Mane’s demeanour changed from being angry and fuming, to being sad and breaking into tears and later turning quiet.
One of the doctors from Sassoon General Hospital psychiatry department who examined Mane at the crime branch office said, “It will be too early to come to any conclusion regarding the mental state of Mane. We have advised that Mane should be kept under observation for a few days and the police will have to interrogate him.”
The crime branch officials said that Mane exhibited astuteness and planning while driving on the fateful day. He was careful in dodging heavy vehicles and targeting small ones.
A senior police officer told DNA, “We have recorded the statements of the eyewitnesses who were present at different spots. One of them told us that he had dodged two buses on Shankarsheth Road. Mane also managed to clear his vehicle from a bus put up as barrier by the city police in the cantonment area. However, he hit the backside of the obstacle bus,” he said.