However, heightened media scrutiny of her case also brought out damning information about her parents, a retired state government employee Dilip Khedkar and Manorama Khedkar. Both of them absconded following the filing of an FIR against them for allegedly threatening a farmer. Now Manorama Khedkar has been arrested.
Gun-toting mother of IAS officer Puja Khedkar
The Pune Rural police early on Thursday arrested Manorama Khedkar, mother of IAS trainee officer Puja Khedkar, from a lodge at Mahad in Raigad district in a case of rioting, threatening and Arms Act violation case.
Paud police in rural Pune on July 12 registered the case against Manorama and six others, including Puja’s father, Dilip Khedkar, after a video went viral on social media showing Manorama, accompanied by private bouncers, brandishing a .25 Webley & Scott pistol on June 5, 2023, during an argument with some farmers over a land ownership issue at Dhadhawali village in Mulshi tehsil. One of the farmers lodged a complaint in this connection.
Superintendent of Police (Pune Rural) Pankaj Deshmukh told TOI “Our team tracked down Manorama’s movement and detained her from the lodge at Mahad in the early hours of Thursday. We are continuing with our search for Dilip Khedkar.”
As per the police, the license for the .25 bore Webley and Scott pistol, issued to Manorama by Pune police in 2000 for self-defense, is under review. The Pune City police has issued a notice to Manorama asking her to explain why her firearm license should not be revoked for violation of license terms.
Dilip Khedkar under lens over assets
Puja’s father Dilip khedkar, who is still absconding, is a retired state government official who ran for Parliament from Ahmednagar recently.After revelations about Puja’s IAS entry using an OBC certificate when her parents’ income allegedly far exceeded the non-creamy layer limit, the Anti-Corruption Bureau in Mumbai has asked the Ahmednagar ACB unit to submit at the earliest its report on a complaint of unaccounted wealth made a few months ago against Dilip Khedkar.
A few months ago, a complaint application was submitted to ACB about Dilip Khedkar’s alleged unaccounted wealth. A source in ACB said that Khedkar was earlier posted in Ahmednagar too. The family’s alleged unaccounted wealth came under the spotlight during the Khedkar certificates controversy.
“An open inquiry was already going on with govt’s permission against Khedkar. We had asked for documents about the allegation. Now we have asked the Ahmednagar unit to send a report about their inquiry,” an ACB officer in the city said. In an open inquiry, the investigating officer can summon the person against whom the application has been submitted and can also ask for documents related to the allegations. If the assets of a person are 10% more than his income after deducting expenditures, then an FIR can be registered.
Dilip Khedkar’s recent LS poll affidavit mentions assets worth Rs 40 crore. The annual income threshold for seeking quota under non-creamy layer OBC category is Rs 8 lakh.
Earlier, RTI activist Vijay Kumbhar said on X that Khedkar’s parents possess properties that include 110 acres of agricultural land, six shops totalling 1.6 lakh sq ft, seven flats, 900 grams of gold, diamonds, a gold watch worth Rs 17 lakh and four cars besides partnerships in two private companies and one automobile firm. “Puja herself possesses property worth Rs 17 crore,” he added. Kumbhar said that he collated these details from Dilip’s election affidavit which was posted on EC’s website.
The DoPT website has details of the immovable properties for the year 2023 held by Puja which are located in Mhalunge, Dhadavali, Nandur, Pachinda and Savedi in Ahmednagar and Kondhwa in Pune. The present value as stated by her is about Rs 17.2 crore while the annual income from the property is about 42 lakh.
(With inputs from TOI)
