A Pune court on Saturday extended the police custody of Manorama Khedkar, mother of trainee IAS officer Puja Khedkar till July 22. The custody has been extended in a case concerning alleged criminal intimidation in a land dispute. She was booked by the police along with her husband Dilip and four others after her video surfaced in which she was waving a gun and allegedly threatening some persons at Dhadwali village in Pune's Mulshi tehsil. The prosecution told the court that they had recovered the pistol used in the crime.
Notably, she was arrested on Thursday morning from a lodge as she was hiding at Hirkaniwadi village near Mahad in Raigad district. Khedkar couple and other accused were booked by the Paud Police under IPC sections, including 307 (attempt to murder), 144 (unlawful assembly armed with a deadly weapon), 147 (rioting) and 506 (criminal intimidation) besides invoking the Arms Act.
The police sought her further custody by saying that Manorama had disclosed the names of two male accused visible in the video but was silent on the other two unidentified female accused. Countering it, defence counsel Vijay Jagtap argued that IPC section 307 (attempt to murder) is not applicable in the case as no bullet was fired and that she deserves bail. According to police, the accused threatened a man named Pandharinath Pasalkar (65) with a gun over a land dispute at Dhadwali village in Mulshi tehsil on June 4, 2023.
Puja Khedkar under scrutiny
The case came to light amid the scrutiny of probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar over her misconduct, misuse of disability and Other Backward Class (non-creamy layer) quotas to secure her candidature in the civic service exam and manipulation of her identity to take the exam beyond permissible attempts.
Accordingly, a criminal case has been registered against her for "misrepresenting and falsifying facts" following a "thorough investigation" by the UPSC. Additionally, a committee to re-examine the documents presented by her has also been formed by the centre.
(With PTI Inputs)
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