Pune Police unable to trace Puja Khedkar’s parents booked in Arms Act case

Puja Khedkar, who faces accusations of using fraudulent means to clear her civil services exam. Pic/X

The police have been unable to trace the parents of controversial probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar in a land dispute case registered against them after a video of her mother threatening a farmer with a pistol in Pune district went viral, a senior official said on Monday.

A team of Pune Rural police visited the bungalow of Manorama and Dilip Khedkar in the Baner area of the city in the morning. But it was unable to enter the premises as there was no response, and doors were locked from the inside, the official said.

The police are conducting searches in Pune and other areas, he said.

An FIR was registered against the Khedkar couple and five others after a video showing Manorama allegedly threatening some persons with a gun over a land dispute emerged.

"A case has been registered at Paud police station. But the Khedkars have not visited the police station for inquiry and have turned off their mobile phones. Our teams are looking for them. Once found, they will be questioned, and legal action will be taken against them," the official said.

The Khedkars and five others have been booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), including Section 323 (dishonest or fraudulent removal or concealment of property), and the Arms Act.

The case was registered days after a video surfaced on social media, which showed Manorama, accompanied by her security guards, engaged in a heated argument with some people with a pistol in her hand in Dhadwali village in Pune's Mulshi tehsil.

The police are looking for others involved in the incident, including the guards, seen in the video, he said.

Certificate row

Meanwhile, Khedkar had submitted a fitness certificate while securing admission to a private medical college in 2007, the institute's director said on Monday.

"There was no mention of any disability, whether physical or mental, in the medical fitness certificate submitted by Puja Khedkar when she joined our college in 2007," said Dr Arvind Bhore, director of the Kashibai Navale Medical College in Pune.

"She had submitted a certificate showing she is from the NT (Nomadic Tribes) category and the Vanjari community. She had submitted caste certificate and non-creamy layer certificate," Bhore told Marathi TV channel ABP Majha.

As per the leaving certificate of her previous college submitted by Puja Khedkar, her date of birth is January 16, 1990, he said. The 34-year-old IAS officer faces accusations of using fraudulent means to clear her civil services exam, including allegedly misrepresenting herself under the physical disabilities and OBC categories.

An official said all documents presented by her to secure her candidature in the civil services examination and then for selection in the service will be re-examined by a single-member committee constituted by the Centre.

2007
Year Khedkar joined medical college

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