Days after controversial trainee IAS officer Puja Khedkar -- Manorama Khedkar -- was arrested for allegedly possessing an illegal firearm, Pune Police has seized the said gun she was seen waving at a man in a threatening manner in the video that went viral.
The cops seized a .25 Webley & Scott licensed pistol along with three bullets from Manorama's house, Times of India reported.
Pune Rural Superintendent of Police, Pankaj Deshmukh, said on Thursday that the probationary IAS officer's mother -- hiding in a lodge at Mahad's Hirkaniwadi -- was detained from the region.
Manorama and her husband Dilip, along with five others, are booked under the charges of attempted murder, rioting, threatening and the Arms Act.
Meanwhile, the Judicial Magistrate Court of Pune extended two days of police custody of Manorama. Earlier, she had been sent to police custody till Saturday, July 20.
"Our local crime branch team recovered the pistol, along with three live cartridges and the original firearm license document, during a search of Manorama's bungalow in Baner between 12:30 pm and 2 pm on Friday," Deshmukh told ToI.
The Pune Rural SP added that at the time of the search, some of the family members were present and the entire op was videographed. "Nothing else that can be termed incriminating was found," he said.
The Khedkar family has been entangled in a controversy which began after the 2023 batch IAS Officer Puja Khedkar was transferred from Pune to Washim over her 'VIP demands'.
Amid the growing list of controversies, a purportedly old video of her mother, Manorama, went viral. The video showed her yelling at a man while waving a pistol over an alleged land dispute.
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Dilip Khedkar had defended his wife and said, "The media and others are showing only one video clip. The day before the incident, a local aggressively approached her with a stick. In such a situation, should she have stayed silent? She possesses a license to carry the gun for self-defence."
The Pune Rural SP said that during Manorama's interrogation, the identities of the bouncers and others who accompanied her at the time of incident was also established. Deshmukh said that their individualistic roles will be established and then a decision on their arrest will be taken.
Meanwhile, Puja's father -- Dilip Khedkar -- was granted interim protection from arrest till July 25 in the same case of threatening a person with firearm over a land dispute.
Dilip had moved the court seeking an anticipatory bail and Judge AN Mare granted him "ad-interim protection from arrest" till the next date of hearing, which is July 25.
Deshmukh said that the police will oppose Dilip's bail plea during the next hearing by drawing the court's attention to the attempted murder charge that has been added in the case.
Meanwhile, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) said that it had lodged a criminal case against Puja Khedkar for "faking her identity" to fraudulently avail of attempts in the civil services examination beyond eligibility, and taken steps to debar her from future selections.
