Spotlight on Puja Khedkar's parents: Gun-toting mother and moneyed father
Puja Khedkar came in the eye of a storm over the authenticity of her disability and OBC status claims that got her appointed to the civil services after she sparked a controversy with her demands for a separate cabin and staff during her posting in Pune. Puja is also accused of using a private luxury car with a VIP number plate and red-blue beacon, during her tenure at the Pune collector's office.
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
