Manorama Khedkar, mother of the controversial IAS trainee officer Puja Khedkar, has been charged with ‘attempt to murder’ in connection with a video in which she was seen brandishing a firearm and threatening a group of villagers. Manorama was arrested earlier today by the Pune rural police from Maharashtra’s Raigad district and has been sent to police custody till Saturday, July 20.
Manorama has been charged under the Arms Act for brandishing a pistol and relevant sections of the new criminal code, Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, along with the attempt of murder charge.
Her arrest came days after a video of her allegedly threatening local villagers over a land dispute with a pistol went viral on social media. The incident in the video was about a land dispute case where the locals had claimed the Khedkars had encroached on the land of neighbouring farmers.
The two-minute video shows Manorama, accompanied by her security guards, engaged in a heated argument with the neighbours. She can be seen yelling at a man with a gun in her hand. She walks up to him and waves the gun in his face before concealing it in her hand.
Additionally, Puja’s father, Dilip Khedkar, has also landed into a controversy after some local reports revealed that Dilip, who served in the Maharashtra government, faced suspension twice during his tenure, both instances linked to allegations of corruption and extortion.
“An open inquiry against Dilip Khedkar is currently underway at the Ahmednagar unit by Nashik ACB. We have now received another complaint seeking an open inquiry. We have recorded the complainant’s statement and forwarded the complaint to ACB headquarters along with the evidence,” Pune ACB superintendent of police Amol Tambe said.
Puja Khedkar, a 2023-batch IAS officer, is accused of posing as an OBC non-creamy layer candidate in her Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) candidature. She also claimed that she was visually and mentally disabled, but refused to take tests to corroborate her claims.
She came under the spotlight after reports about her alleged demands for a separate office and official car and unauthorised use of a beacon on her private car during her posting in Pune emerged. She was subsequently transferred to Washim from Pune.
However, the government on Tuesday put on hold the district training programme of the controversial IAS officer as she was summoned back to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Uttarakhand’s Mussoorie for “necessary action”.
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