IAS trainee officer Puja Khedkar’s mother Manorama Khedkar has been arrested by the Pune Police on Thursday morning from a hotel in Raigad. She has been taken into custody for possessing an illegal firearm.
Manorama Khedkar has been charged under 307 and she was being brought to Pune by three police teams.
“Manorama Khedkar, mother of IAS trainee Puja Khedkar, has been detained from Mahad,” ANI quoted SP, Pune Rural Police, Pankaj Deshmukh as saying.
Why Puja Khedkar’s mother has been arrested?
The Pune Police arrested Puja Khedkar’s mother Manorama Khedkar after her video went viral in which she was seen brandishing a pistol.
In a two-minute clip, Manorama, accompanied by security guards, was seen in a heated argument with a man while waving a pistol in his face before attempting to conceal the weapon.
An officer earlier had said that the incident in the video was about a land parcel bought by Puja Khedkar’s father Dilip Khedkar, a retired Maharashtra government officer, in Dhadwali village in Pune’s Mulshi tehsil.
However, locals had claimed the Khedkars had encroached on the land of neighbouring farmers.
In the video, she was seen demanding for land documents and after the discussion became intense, she took out a pistol, threatening the farmers. Manorama quickly concealed it after noticing a camera capturing what was happening there.
After the clip of Puja Khedkar’s mother brandishing a pistol went viral, Pune Police swept into action and had registered a First Information Report (FIR) against her on July 13. The complaint also names her husband and Dilip Khedkar as an accused in the case.
Pune Police said the parents of Puja Khedkar had switched off their phones soon after they got to know that a case against them .
The cops also reached visited the residence of Puja Khedkar’s parents, but they are unavailable, Deshmukh had earlier said.
They face charges under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), including section 323 (dishonest or fraudulent removal or concealment of property) and the Arms Act.
Trouble mounts for Puja Khedkar
However, the trouble for Khedkar family is bigger than this incident. Puja Khedkar, who secured an all-India rank (AIR) of 841 in the UPSC exam as part of the 2023 batch, has faced allegations of making false claims in her UPSC candidature. She has been accused of misusing her power after assuming her post.
Puja Khedkar has allegedly made demands for a separate office and official car and is also accused of unauthorised use of a beacon on her private car during her posting in Pune.
She has now also been facing backlash for misrepresenting her eligibility as an OBC non-creamy layer candidate in her Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) application.
Not just this, Puja Khedkar also claimed to be visually and mentally disabled but refused to undergo tests to validate these claims.
With many lapses surfacing in her candidature, the government on Tuesday has placed Puja Khedkar’s ‘district training program’ on hold and summoned her back to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Uttarakhand’s Mussoorie for “necessary action.”
With inputs from agencies
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Why controversial IAS officer Puja Khedkar’s mother, Manorama, has been detained
