IAS trainee Puja Khedkar's mother Manorama arrested in 'gun-brandishing' video case; was hiding in a lodge
Chandigarh, July 18
Pune police on Thursday arrested Manorama Khedkar, mother of controversial IAS probationer Puja Khedkar, in a case of allegedly threatening some persons by brandishing a gun over a land dispute.
She was apprehended early morning from Mahad in Maharashtra’s Raigad district, an official said.
Manorama Khedkar was hiding in a lodge at Hirkaniwadi in Mahad, according to the police.
After being apprehended, she was brought to the Paud police station in Pune district.
Dilip Khedkar and his wife Manorama Khedkar had remained untraceable after police registered an FIR against them over a video purportedly showing Manorama threatening some persons with a gun following a land dispute in Mulshi tehsil of Pune district.
The police in Pune rural have booked the Khedkar couple and five others under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) sections, including 323 (dishonest or fraudulent removal or concealment of property).
A two-minute video shows Manorama Khedkar wielding a pistol, accompanied by her security guards, engaged in a heated argument with some persons in Dhadwali village.
Puja Khedkar, the 2023-batch IAS officer, is under scrutiny for her claims regarding disability and Other Backward Class (OBC) certificates in her Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) candidature, as well as her conduct during tenure at the Pune collector’s office.
Amid the row, the government on Tuesday put on hold the ‘district training program’ of Khedkar, who was earlier transferred to Washim as a supernumerary assistant collector from Pune, as she was summoned back to the Mussoorie-based Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration for “necessary action”.
