PUNE: The Pune Rural police early on Thursday morning detained Manorama Khedkar, mother of IAS trainee officer Puja Khedkar, from a lodge at Mahad in Raigad district in a case of rioting, threatening and Arms Act violation case.
Paud police in rural Pune on July 12 registered the case against Manorama and six others, including Puja’s father, Dilip Khedkar, after a video went viral on social media showing Manorama, accompanied by private bouncers, brandishing a .25 Webley & Scott pistol on June 5, 2023, during an argument with some farmers over a land ownership issue at Dhadhawali village in Mulshi tehsil.
One of the farmers lodged a complaint in this connection.
Superintendent of Police (Pune Rural) Pankaj Deshmukh told TOI “Our team tracked down Manorama’s movement and detained her from the lodge at Mahad in the early hours of Thursday. We are continuing with our search for Dilip Khedkar.”
Another senior Pune Rural police officer, who did not wish to be named, told TOI “Manorama had hired a private cab to move around different places ever since the case was registered against her.”
A police team was expected to produce Manorama before a magisterial court in Paud on Thursday afternoon for custodial remand proceedings.
Separate teams of Pune Rural police had earlier visited Pathardi in Ahmednagar district, where the Khedkars have their ancestral home, besides, searching for the Khedkar couple in Lonavla and Mumbai.
Pune City police had issued the firearm license to Manorama in the year 2000 for self-defence purposes.
After the case registered by the Paud police, the Pune City police issued a notice to Manorama asking her to explain why her firearm license should not be revoked for violation of license terms.
Source Agencies
