UPSC cheating case | Search launched by police to track down Puja Khedkar's mother Manorama

The rescued truck helper was identified as Prahlad Kumar, a 22-year-old, who is a resident of Turbhe. Kumar was accompanying the driver Chandkumar Chavan, the mixer-truck lightly scraped SUV, in which there were two occupants.

Mumbai: Hours after an abducted truck helper was rescued from the Pune residence of dismissed IAS probationary officer Puja Khedkar, the police are looking out for her mother Manorama Khedkar.

Puja’s father and Manorama’s estranged husband Dilip Khedkar is a former Maharashtra government bureaucrat, who also tried luck in politics.

The rescued truck helper was identified as Prahlad Kumar, a 22-year-old, who is a resident of Turbhe.

The accident took place on Saturday on the Mulund-Airoli Road in the satellite township of Navi Mumbai.

Kumar was accompanying the driver Chandkumar Chavan, the mixer-truck lightly scraped SUV, in which there were two occupants.

The occupants of the car took the helper along with them on the pretext of taking him to the police station.

A complaint was registered with the Rabale police station in Navi Mumbai.

After investigations, police traced the SUV to Khedkar’s residence in Chaturshringi area of Pune.

The kidnapped truck driver was rescued from the Pune home of the Khedkar family, said the police.

However, the Navi Mumbai police team faced stiff resistance from Puja’s mother Manorama.

The Pune police has now booked Manorama and summoned her for investigations.

The Chaturshringi police station has booked her under sections 221, 238 and 263 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

It may be recalled, in July 2024, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) cancelled the candidature Probationary Officer (PO) of the IAS and barred her from appearing in any examinations/selections conducted by the commission.

The UPSC has found Khedkar who passed the Civil Services Examination in 2022 (CSE-2022), guilty of faking her identity to take the exam multiple times.

Before that, her attachment to the Maharashtra government as Supernumerary Assistant Collector for her PO period, however, was relieved after directives from Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie.

In July 2024, the Paud police station of Pune Rural police has arrested Manorama Khedkar from Mahad town in Raigad district after a video of her surfaced - in which she was seen with a pistol in her hand and was heard asking - “Show me the saat-barah (7/12 land extract records)…this (land) is in my name…if you claim, show me the court order.” She was granted bail in the case.