A Pune Court in Paud has sent Manorama Dilip Khedkar – the mother of the controversial IAS-Probationary Officer Puja Khedkar – to police custody till July 20, hours after she was arrested from Mahad town in Raigad District, here on Thursday, officials said.
Manorama, who was 'missing' for nearly a week after a viral video showing her threatening some farmers in Mulshi with a pistol allegedly to grab their land, was traced to a small lodge, Parvati Niwas near Mahad town.
Superintendent of Police Pune (Rural), Pankaj Deshmukh confirmed the developments and said that a team of sleuths traced her to a lodge near Mahad.
Staying there under a fake name of 'Indu Dnyandev Dhakane' with another person named 'Dadasaheb Dnyandev Dhakane', an moving around in hired cabs, she was picked up around dawn by a Pune Police team and whisked off to Paud in Pune.
A former Sarpanch (village headwoman) of Bhalgaon in Pune, Manorama D. Khedkar was produced before Judicial Magistrate First Class SG Barde, who remanded her to police custody till Saturday (July 20).
Seeking her remand for seven days, the police said that they wanted to trace and seize the pistol which she used to threaten the farmers in July 2023, investigate her other accomplices, and considering her influence and political connections to prevent her from destroying evidence or swaying witnesses.
However, the JMFC Court granted her two days' police custody and posted the matter for next hearing on July 20.
Manorama Khedkar, and six others, face a complaint registered by a farmer from Mulshi, Pandharinath Pasalkar, for the year-old incident which was taken cognisance by the police on July 12.
The video of her brandishing the pistol before farmers sparked a massive public outcry after which the Paud Police filed the case against Manorama and others, but she had gone incommunicado since then.
Subsequently, the Pune Commissioner of Police also slapped her with a notice seeking an explanation why it should not cancel her fire-arms licence.
The Khedkar family came under a cloud after a series of startling revelations and allegations on multiple counts, against Dr. Puja Khedkar, an IAS-Probationary Officer, first posted as Assistant Collector in Pune and then transferred to the same post in Washim, last week, and now facing a central enquiry for her various acts.
Simultaneously as more details about her family emerged, her mother Manorama was also booked and arrested (today), while her father Dilip, an ex-state government officer, currently reported to be 'untraceable', is also under the scanner for amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
In a major development on (July 16), following directives from the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) Mussoorie, the Maharashtra government relieved Puja Khedkar of her duties as IAS-PO in Washim and directed her to return to her alma mater by July 23, for 'further necessary action'.
(With inputs from IANS)
