A video purportedly showing controversial IAS officer Puja Khedkar’s mother arguing with Metro rail construction workers in Pune has surfaced, days after another clip of her wielding a gun and threatening a group of men went viral.In the video, Khedkar’s mother Manorama is seen arguing with the Metro rail construction workers where some police personnel are also present. But the exact date of the clip, which lasts 27 seconds, is not known. After the previous video of Manorama brandishing a gun went viral, the Pune Rural police last week said a probe would be conducted to ascertain facts, including whether she possessed a licence for the firearm.
The incident in the video was about a land parcel bought by Puja’s father Dilip Khedkar, a retired Maharashtra government officer, in Dhadwali village in Pune’s Mulshi tehsil, an official earlier said. Locals had claimed the Khedkars had encroached on the land of neighbouring farmers. The two-minute video shows Manorama Khedkar, accompanied by her security guards, engaged in a heated argument with the neighbours. She can be seen yelling at a man with a pistol in her hand. She walks up to him and waves the gun in his face before concealing it in her hand.
VIDEO| मनोरमा खेडकर यांचा आणखी एक व्हिडीओ व्हायरल #IASPoojaKhedkar #ManoramaKhedkar pic.twitter.com/QPjvBC37xl
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Puja Khedkar, a 2023-batch IAS officer, is accused of posing as an OBC non-creamy layer candidate in her Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) candidature. She also claimed that she was visually and mentally disabled, but refused to take tests to corroborate her claims. She 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 during her posting in Pune emerged. She was subsequently transferred to Washim from Pune.
However, the government on Tuesday put on hold the district training programme of the controversial IAS officer as she was summoned back to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Uttarakhand’s Mussoorie for “necessary action”. A letter by Maharashtra additional chief secretary Nitin Gadre said the academy had decided to put her district training programme on hold, and immediately recalled her.
