Khedkar family removes illegal structure after civic notice

An 'illegal' structure near trainee Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Puja Khedkar's family bungalow in Pune has been cleared, days after the civic body issued them a notice to remove it, an official said on Wednesday.

Khedkar's family might have got the alleged encroachment removed as the deadline set by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is not yet over, the official said.

PMC officials had on July 13 pasted a notice outside the bungalow in the city's Baner Road area asking the IAS officer's family to clear an 'unauthorised' structure measuring 60 feet in length, 3 feet in width and with a height of 2 feet along a footpath adjoining the property.

"We had put up the notice at the bungalow asking them (Khedkar's family) to remove the encroachment within seven days. The notice said if the family failed to remove the structure within seven days, PMC would clear it and recover the expenses from them," said a senior civic official.

The Pune civic body has not cleared the structure since the deadline is not yet over, the official said.

"Probably the family got it removed by employing private workers," he said.

Khedkar is in the eye of a storm for allegedly misusing the disability and Other Backward Class (OBC) quota to secure a position in the IAS besides facing allegations of unwarranted conduct during her posting at the Pune collector's office.

Meanwhile, her parents Manorama and Dilip Khedkar remain untraceable, days after police registered a first information report (FIR) against them over a video purportedly showing them threatening some persons with a gun following a land dispute in Mulshi tehsil of Pune district.

The Paud police in Pune rural have booked her parents and five others under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) sections, including 323 (dishonest or fraudulent removal or concealment of property).

The two-minute-long video shows Manorama Khedkar with a pistol, accompanied by her security guards, engaged in a heated argument with some people at Dhadwali village, an official had said.

According to the official, the incident concerned a land parcel bought by Dilip Khedkar, a retired Maharashtra government employee.

Locals had claimed the Khedkars had encroached on the land of neighbouring farmers.

The government on Tuesday put on hold the district training programme of Puja Khedkar, a 2023 batch IAS officer, as she was summoned back to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration for 'necessary action', officials had said.

The 34-year-old IAS officer came under the spotlight after reports about her alleged demands for a separate office and official car and unauthorised use of a beacon on her private car emerged. She was subsequently transferred to Washim from Pune.