Pune, 18 July

Pune police on Thursday arrested Manorama Khedkar, mother of controversial IAS probationer Puja Khedkar, in a case of allegedly threatening some persons by brandishing a gun over a land dispute, officials said.

She was apprehended early morning from Mahad in Maharashtra's Raigad district, an official said. Manorama Khedkar was hiding in a lodge at Hirkaniwadi in Mahad, according to the police. After being apprehended, she was brought to the Paud police station in Pune district.

Police had launched a search for Manorama and her husband Dilip Khedkar after a video surfaced showing her allegedly threatening some persons with a gun over a land dispute at Dhadwali village in Pune's Mulshi tehsil.

The Paud police in Pune rural have booked the Khedkar couple and five others under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) sections, including 323 (dishonest or fraudulent removal or concealment of property), and relevant provisions of the Arms act.

"Manorama Khedkar was apprehended from Mahad in Raigad district and she was brought to Pune where, after the completion of formalities, she was placed under arrest," Superintendent of Police, Pune Rural, Pankaj Deshmukh, said. Multiple teams had been formed to trace Manorama, her husband and five others accused in the case.

Puja Khedkar is under scrutiny for her claims regarding disability and Other Backward Class (OBC) certificates in her Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) candidature, as well as her conduct during tenure at the Pune collector's office.

Amid the row, the government on Tuesday put on hold the 'district training program' of Puja Khedkar, who was earlier transferred to Washim as a supernumerary assistant collector from Pune, as she was summoned back to the Mussoorie-based Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration for "necessary action".

The Pune Anti-Corruption Bureau unit has received a complaint seeking an open inquiry against Puja Khedkar's father Dilip Khedkar, a retired government office, in connection with alleged disproportionate assets, a senior official said on Wednesday. There is already an inquiry underway by the ACB's Nashik division against him into the alleged disproportionate assets.

Hence, the Pune unit of the anti-graft agency has sought directions from the ACB headquarters to either incorporate the fresh complaint into the ongoing probe or whether to conduct a separate open inquiry, the official said.