Trainee IAS officer Puja Khedkar’s father granted interim protection from arrest

A Pune court on Friday granted interim protection from arrest till July 25 to Dilip Khedkar, father of trainee Indian Administrative Service officer Puja Khedkar, in a case pertaining to threatening farmers, reported PTI.

On Thursday, Dilip Khedkar’s wife Manorama Khedkar was arrested in the same case. She has been remanded to police custody till July 20.

The police had launched a search for Manorama and Dilip Khedkar after a video surfaced on social media showing her arguing with some persons about a land dispute at the Dhadawali village in Pune’s Mulshi tehsil.

Manorama Khedkar can be seen wielding a gun in the video. The incident occurred on June 5, 2023.

A first information report was filed against Manorama and Dilip Khedkar based on a complaint by a farmer named Pandharinath Pasalkar at a police station in Paud on July 12.

The couple has been booked for attempt to murder, unlawful assembly armed with deadly weapons, rioting and criminal intimidation, reported PTI. The police have also booked them under the Arms Act.

Meanwhile, the Union Public Service Commission on Friday booked Puja Khedkar for alleged forgery and issued a show cause notice for cancelling her candidature in the 2022 Civil Services Examination.

The commission is a constitutional body that conducts the recruitment of officers to the All India Services and the Central Civil Services through examinations.

The controversy relating to Khedkar, a Maharashtra cadre officer, erupted after Pune-based Right to Information activist Vijay Kumbhar alleged that she had become a civil services officer by fraudulently availing benefits under the Other Backward Classes quota. Kumbhar alleged that Khedkar falsely claimed that her parents’ income was below the threshold for classifying an individual as part of the creamy layer.

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