Dilip Khedkar, father of Puja Khedkar, a trainee Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, secured pre-arrest bail until July 25 on Friday in connection with a case where he and his wife are accused of threatening an individual with a gun over a land dispute.
“He applied for anticipatory bail, which was granted ‘ad-interim protection from arrest’ by Judge AN Mare until July 25, the next hearing date. If arrested before then, he will need to be released on bail,” stated a lawyer representing Dilip Khedkar, a former Maharashtra government officer, to reporters.
The previous day, Manorama Khedkar, Puja Khedkar’s mother, was detained and subsequently placed in police custody until Saturday in the same case. The senior Khedkars are among seven individuals booked for allegedly threatening local farmers.
Pune Rural Police have filed charges under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 144 (unlawful assembly armed with deadly weapon), 147 (rioting), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and the Arms Act. The case arose from a viral video showing Manorama Khedkar allegedly using a gun to threaten individuals at Dhadwali village in Pune’s Mulshi tehsil in June 2023.
In other developments today, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) disclosed filing a case against Puja Khedkar for allegedly ‘faking her identity’ to unlawfully benefit from additional attempts in the Civil Services Examination (CSE) beyond eligibility. The UPSC announced her debarring from future selections.
Responding to the UPSC’s statement, Puja Khedkar, a 2022 batch officer of the Maharashtra cadre, remarked, “The judiciary will proceed; I will address whatever is necessary.”