Harassment charges: Puja Khedkar likely to go to Pune Police on 20 July

The controversial IAS-probationary officer Dr Puja M.D. Khedkar is expected to meet the Pune Police on 20 July and record her statement pertaining to allegations of harassment levelled against the district collector, a top official said in Pune on Friday.

“We have issued a second summons to her seeking her presence to record her statement tomorrow (20 July). She has indicated that she will be coming here… We shall wait,” Pune commissioner of police Amitesh Kumar told IANS.

He said that Dr Khedkar was issued the first summons calling her on 18 July, but she failed to turn up, after which the second summons was served to her in Washim.

Kumar said that in case she does not turn up even on Saturday, then the Pune Police will examine the situation and take the appropriate measures.

Earlier this week, Dr Puja Khedkar had given a written complaint to the police with shocking claims of alleged harassment by the Pune Collector Suhas Diwate who had sought her transfer from Pune to Washim.

Following a series of unreasonable demands beyond her entitlement as IAS-PO, the assistant collector Dr Puja Khedkar was shunted from Pune to Washim Collectorate in the same designation.

Meanwhile, there came a bunch of sensational revelations against Dr Puja Khedkar on her academic qualifications, caste certificate, disability certificate, name changes, etc.

This prompted the state government and the Centre to initiate a formal inquiry against her pending which she was removed from her field training on 16 July, as per the directives of the Mussoorie-based Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration.

She was asked to report back to the LBSNAA ‘for further action’, and is facing several other probes in Pune and at the Maharashtra government level.

On Thursday, several state government staffers unions-associations-organisations sent a memorandum to chief minister Eknath Shinde demanding stringent action against Dr Puje Khedkar for her wild allegations against the Pune Collector filing which they have threatened a state-wide agitation.

The Khedkar family is currently in a bizarre situation -- Dr Puja Khedkar is under the close scanner of various departments and agencies.

Her father and ex-government employee Dilip K. Khedkar is under a cloud for amassing huge wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income and is currently ‘missing’.

Her mother, an ex-Sarpanch (village headwoman) Manorama D. Khedkar is presently in jail in Paud for brandishing a pistol and allegedly threatening some farmers ostensibly to usurp their lands in Mulshi.