PUNE: Pune Police on Thursday detained Manorama Khedkar, the mother of controversial IAS officer Puja Khedkar, in the Raigad District. A few days ago while the several controversies surrounding Puja made headlines, a video of Manorama Khedkar threatening a farmer with a gun in her hand over a land dispute at Dhadwali village in Pune's Mulshi tehsil went viral on social media, prompting the Police filing of a formal FIR against her at the Paud police station in Pune rural. 

Manorama and her husband Dilip Khedkar were notified to join the probe into the matter but the two went missing as the police claim they were not traceable. The police formed multiple teams and launched a hunt for the Khedkar couple and five others who have been named as accused in the case. Soon they got information that she was lodging at a lodge close to the well-known Raigad Fort, and they traced and detained her on Wednesday, July 17, 2024. According to the police officials, she had checked in the lodge under a false name assuming the identity of the mother of her driver who had driven her up to the small inn and used a fake Aadhar card as her identity document. 

The Superintendent of Police, Pune Rural, Pankaj Deshmukh, said, that Manorama Khedkar has been detained from Mahad in Raigad district and she is being brought to Pune where, after the completion of formalities, she will be placed under arrest.  The Paud police in Pune rural have booked the Khedkar couple and five others under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) sections, including 323 (dishonest or fraudulent removal or concealment of property), and relevant provisions of the Arms Act. 

After her arrest, Manorama Khedkar was brought by the police team to a hospital for medical examination after which further measures will be taken and as per procedure she will be produced before a magistrate for remand.

The arrest of her parents will further compound Puja Khedkar's troubles as she is under heavy public and administrative scrutiny for a variety of issues. Khedkar, a trainee IAS officer, landed in the dock as she demanded privileges that are reserved for senior civil servants including the red beacon on her luxury car. It was later alleged that she misused the non-creamy layer OBC quota as well as that for the physically handicapped. Union Public Services Commission (UPSC)  has now paused Khedkar's District Training and has called her back to Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie for further 'necessary action' against her.