Puja Khedkar's mother in police custody; Sec 307 added to FIR

The police on Thursday told a court in Maharashtra's Pune district that they had invoked IPC Section 307 for attempt to murder against Manorama Khedkar, mother of IAS probationer Puja Khedkar, as they sought her custody for five days in a land dispute case.

Cops also called Manorama, her husband Dilip and three others, all shown as accused in the FIR, as “influential and politically active” persons, in the court in Paud that remanded Manorama in police custody till July 20.

The 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 in 2023.

The Paud police in Pune rural have booked the Khedkar couple and five others under IPC sections, including 307, 144 (unlawful assembly armed with deadly weapon), 147 (rioting) and 506 (criminal intimidation) besides invoking the Arms Act.

Manorama was apprehended in the morning from a lodge, where she was hiding, at Hirkaniwadi village near Mahad in Raigad district and brought to the Paud police station before being placed under arrest, Superintendent of Police, Pune Rural, Pankaj Deshmukh, had said earlier.

She was later produced before a judicial magistrate (first class) at Paud.

Manorama, her husband Dilip and three others have been accused of threatening one Pandharinath Pasalkar (65) with a gun over a land dispute at Dhadwali village in Pune's Mulshi tehsil on June 4, 2023.

Justifying the addition of IPC section 307 in the FIR, the prosecution told the court that the accused had put the gun on the complainant's head. When she was about to pull the trigger, the complainant ducked in fear, while the other accused restrained her, police told the court.

Manorama is neither cooperating with the investigators nor sharing information concerning the whereabouts of Dilip Khedkar and the other three accused and details about the pistol and the four-wheeler used in the crime, police claimed.

Calling the accused “influential and politically active” persons, the police said they wanted to confiscate the weapon and needed her custodial interrogation for that purpose. The prosecution also said police wanted to trace the other accused in the case.

The police said Manorama has some land in the Mulshi region of Pune district and they needed to check whether she had threatened any other people with the gun.

Defence counsel Nikhil Malani opposed the prosecution's plea for police custody, contending that Manorama had filed a case against the complainant in this matter. A chargesheet was also filed in that case, he said.

“The present complainant was on the backfoot (due to the case filed against him). But after a video went viral on social media recently, he came forward and filed a case against his client,” said Malani.

He argued that when the case was first registered against his client, all the sections in the FIR were non-bailable but the police abruptly added IPC Section 307 (attempt to murder) on July 17. Since it is a non-bailable section, she was arrested, he said.

He told the court that the case against Manorama was an “afterthought” as it was registered 13 months after the alleged incident.

“There are no valid apprehensions or contentions regarding 307 (attempt to murder) in the FIR,” he said.

After hearing both sides, the court remanded Manorama in police custody till July 20.

Puja Khedkar is under scrutiny for her claims regarding disability and Other Backward Class certificates in her Union Public Service Commission candidature, as well as her conduct during her 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 official, 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.