Road rage-abduction case: Puja Khedkar’s father gets anticipatory bail

The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted anticipatory bail to former IAS probationer Puja Khedkar's father, Dilip Khedkar, accused of kidnapping a truck cleaner after a road rage incident last month.

A bench of Justice N R Borkar, while granting the pre-arrest bail, directed Dilip Khedkar to give Rs 4 lakh to the cleaner -- Prahlad Kumar -- within six weeks and deposit Rs 1 lakh with the police welfare fund.

Khedkar had moved the high court after a Navi Mumbai sessions court rejected his anticipatory bail plea.

He has been on the run since the alleged incident occurred on September 13 on the Mulund-Airoli Road in Navi Mumbai.

As per the FIR, a cement-mixer truck grazed an SUV owned by Dilip Khedkar, following which, he and his driver-cum-bodyguard, Praful Salunkhe, had an altercation with the truck driver Chandrakumar Chavan and cleaner Prahlad Kumar.

Khedkar and Salunkhe allegedly forced Kumar into their vehicle, saying they were taking him to the police station. Vilas Dherange, the truck owner, lodged a complaint after Kumar did not respond to the repeated calls made by the truck driver.

As per the police, Kumar was allegedly detained by Khedkar in his Pune bungalow and was rescued by the police the next day.

The police have arrested Salunkhe, and he is currently in judicial custody.

Khedkar, in his plea, claimed innocence and said it was mutually decided that the cleaner would accompany him till the damage caused to his car was not evaluated by a garage or mechanic.

He also claimed that the truck driver himself asked him to take Kumar, and since it was getting late, he took him to his bungalow.

As per Khedkar, Kumar left his bungalow the next morning.

The sessions court, while refusing bail to Khedkar, had noted that he could have taken the police's assistance, but he forcibly took Kumar and confined him in his bungalow.

Khedkar's wife, Manorama, was also named as an accused in the case for obstructing the police when they went to rescue Kumar. A sessions court had granted her pre-arrest bail.

After the incident last month, the Rabale police in Navi Mumbai registered the case against the accused under section 137(2) (kidnapping) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.