Pune police now book probationary IAS officer's parents, 5 others in pistol threat case

Mumbai: The Pune police has registered a case against at least seven persons, including controversial probationary IAS officer Puja D. Khedkar's mother Manorama D. Khedkar, who had allegedly threatened a farmer with a pistol, officials said on Saturday.

The complaint was lodged at Paud Police Station in Pune late on Friday by farmer, Pandharinath K. Pasalkar against Manorama Khedkar, her husband Dilip Khedkar, relative Ambadas Khedkar, two unidentified men and two women, said Paud Police Station IO S.S. Devkate.

"The incident happened on June 5, last year at Dhavali village on the lands owned by Pasalkar when his caretaker Maruti Maragale and his family were abused, and threatened at gun-point by the Khedkars and others," Devkate told IANS.

Earlier, Pasalkar had claimed that despite repeated attempts, the police failed to take cognisance of the matter for a year, but it was only after a video of the incident went viral in the past couple of days that the Paud police registered the complaint, and have initiated a probe.

Simultaneously, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has served a notice to Manorama Khedkar asking her to remove certain illegal constructions within and outside her bungalow in the posh Baner Road in the city.

In a related development, in the state-level probe, it has emerged that Puja Khedkar had secured her visual impairment (2018) and mental illness (2020) certificates from the Ahmednagar Civil Hospital, and later a combined certificate was issued in 2021 for her UPSC exams, said the District Health Officer Dr. Sanjay Ghogare.

The fast-paced developments came a day after the Centre appointed a one-man committee of a senior IAS officer Manoj Dwivedi, the Additional Secretary, Department of Personnel & Training, to probe all allegations against Khedkar and submit the enquiry report within a fortnight.

The Pune police’s Chaturshringi Traffic Department has earlier slapped a notice to Khedkar, currently posted as Assistant Collector in Washim, to submit the relevant documents of her Audi-A4 white on which several irregularities like affixing ‘Maharashtra Government’ stickers, a beacon light, and several unpaid past traffic ‘challans’ were detected.

Meanwhile, Dilip K. Khedkar, a retired senior state government officer and a losing candidate of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi in the Lok Sabha 2024 elections, has stoutly denied all the allegations against his daughter, attributing them to vested interests.