Amid allegations that trainee IAS official Puja Khedkar misused disability provision and Other Backward Class quota to secure a position in the Indian Administrative Services (IAS), a video purportedly showing Puja's mother waving a pistol at farmers has gone viral.
The two-minute video shows a woman, who reports claims was Puja Khedkar's mother Manorama Khedkar, brandishing a pistol to threaten a group of farmers in Pune's Mulshi tehsil. Manorama was seen yelling at a man over what appeared to be a land dispute. She, however, conceals the pistol on realising that she is being recorded.
Manorama is heard in the video yelling at a man in Marathi, asking him to show her "satbara" (land documents). He replies that his name is on the land document and the case is in court. She then asks to see the court order and warns the man not to "teach me the rules".
The video could not be independently verified.
Now a video of #PujaKhedkar's mother Manorama Khedkar has emerged. In this video, she can be seen threatening a villager with a pistol in her hand in Mulshi region of #Pune. https://t.co/rcP3RB4lTl pic.twitter.com/cfKC95iUyE
— Prateek Goyal (@tweets_prateekg) July 12, 2024
The farmers claim that the Khedkar family reportedly tried to occupy the land of neighbouring farmers. When the Khedkars were resisted, Manorama reached the property with her security guards. The farmers reportedly tried to file a complaint against the family but were discouraged from doing so.
Meanwhile, trouble seemed to be mounting for Puja Khedkar after Navi Mumbai police reported to the Maharashtra government that she tried to pressure a DCP-rank officer to release a man held in a theft case.
The incident had occurred on May 18 at Panvel police station, reported PTI. Puja allegedly phoned Deputy Commissioner of Police Vivek Pansare and urged him to release a transporter, Ishwar Uttarwade, arrested in a theft case. She claimed Uttarwade was innocent and that the charges against him were minor, the official said.
Though Khedkar had identified herself during the phone call with Pansare, the DCP was not sure whether the caller was indeed an IAS officer or an imposter, the official said. The Navi Mumbai police did not act on the call and Uttarwade is still in judicial custody for the alleged crime, he said.
Khedkar courted controversy after she made demands such as a separate cabin and staff even before her training was completed. She was transferred from Pune to Washim district after the reports.
The allegations that Khedkar misused the disability provision and Other Backward Class quota to secure a position in the IAS have also prompted the Centre to constitute a single-member committee to verify the candidature of the 2023-batch IAS officer of the Maharashtra cadre.
