Following the furore around controversial Indian Administrative Service probationer Puja Khedkar and her family, the Pune police have now registered a first information report (FIR) against Puja’s parents, Manorama and Dilip Khedkar besides five others, after a video showing Ms. Manorama Khedkar allegedly threatening a farmer with a gun over a land dispute surfaced.
However, authorities said on July 15 that Ms. Manorama Khedkar was ‘untraceable’ despite the police visiting the Khedkar residence on Sunday and today.
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“We have not been able to enter the premises. Manorama Khedkar’s mobile phone is also switched off. We plan to set up and enquiry and take legal action against her once she is found,” a police official from the Paud police station said.
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The Pune Rural Police have booked the Khedkar couple and five others under relevant sections of the Bharatiya (Second) Nyay Sanhita, 2023 and section 323 (dishonest or fraudulent removal or concealment of property) of the same act at Paud police station.
Ms. Manorama Khedkar was booked after her daughter Ms. Puja Khedkar’s ‘infamy’ concerning abuse of power and faking disability and her OBC certificate came to light.
The video clip shows Ms. Manorama Khedkar verbally browbeating the farmer with a pocket pistol in her hand over a land dispute in Pune’s Mulshi tehsil.
Earlier, when farmers tried to lodge a complaint with the police over Ms. Manorama Khedkar’s high-handed behaviour, their supplications went unheeded and the police refused to file the complaint.
However, with Puja Khedkar (currently undergoing training at Washim district) under the scanner, the Pune Rural police have finally swung into action.
A case was registered against Manorama Khedkar under the Arms Act as well by the Pune rural police who acted on a complaint made by the farmer that the latter had tried to threaten him.
It has also been alleged that Puja’s father, government servant Dilip Khedkar, who contested the general election this year from Ahmednagar as a candidate of the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), amassed property worth crores of rupees and purchased land at several locations including 25 acres in Pune’s Mulshi taluk alone.
