Puja Khedkar’s mother used fake ID, hid in lodge with cabbie as ‘son’: Report
Manorama reportedly rented a private taxi to reach the lodge, used a fake Aadhaar card identifying her as Indubai, and introduced the cab driver as her son
Trainee IAS officer Puja Khedkar’s mother Manorama Khedkar reportedly used a fake Aadhaar card to book a room at a lodge in Maharashtra’s Raigad district to throw the police off her tail and even lived there with the driver of a private taxi whom she introduced as her son.
Manorama was arrested from the lodge on Thursday (July 18) morning in connection with a video that ostensibly showed her threatening some people with a gun over a land dispute at Dhadwali village in Pune’s Mulshi tehsil. A Pune court has remanded her in police custody for two days.
Hunt on for Puja’s father
Police are still looking for her husband Dilip Khedkar, who is a retired government employee. The Paud police in Pune rural have booked the couple and five others under relevant Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) sections, including 323 (dishonest or fraudulent removal or concealment of property), and the Arms Act.
A police source told news channel NDTV that Manorama rented a private taxi to reach the hotel and that she had introduced the cab driver as her son. She had reportedly used a fake ID card identifying her as Indubai. But police reportedly tracked her down using GPS.
“Manorama Khedkar was apprehended from Mahad in Raigad district and she was brought to Paud where, after the completion of formalities, she was placed under arrest,” Superintendent of Police, Pune Rural, Pankaj Deshmukh, had told news agency PTI earlier.
Family saga
The family’s troubles began with her daughter Puja Khedkar coming under scrutiny for her dubious disability claims and Other Backward Class (OBC) certificates in her Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) candidature, as well as her conduct during her tenure at the Pune collector’s office.
As Puja’s training was put on hold and a Central panel started probing her selection into the IAS, her parents also came under scrutiny. That’s when Manorama’s video surfaced and Dilip also came under the radar of the Pune Anti-Corruption Bureau in an alleged disproportionate assets case. He was apparently suspended twice on charges of corruption after businessmen accused him of extortion.