Pune/Washim (Maharashtra): Trainee IAS officer Puja Khedkar, who is embroiled in a controversy, on Monday asserted that proving her guilty by media trial is wrong on everybody's part.
Recently, the Centre constituted a single-member committee, chaired by a senior officer of the rank of additional secretary to the Government of India to verify the candidature claim and other details of Puja Khedkar. Khedkar is a probationary IAS officer of the 2023 batch. The committee chaired by Manoj Dwivedi will submit the report in two weeks.
The controversy started after she was found using a red-blue beacon and a board of Maharashtra government on her private Audi car and raising demands for unauthorised perks at her office, a privilege not available to junior officers.
The 34-year-old Khedkar faces more serious charges that raise questions about her selection process in the civil services. She had also claimed several disabilities to avail of concessions in the Union Public Service Commission selection process but refused to undergo mandatory medical tests. Controversy also arose over her claim of Other Backward Classes (OBC) status.
Speaking to reporters, Puja Khedkar said, "I think everybody can see whatever is happening and as I said I do not want to comment on it because media and the common public are very... I believe in the common public, I believe in the media also and everybody is that intelligent and everybody knows what is happening. And that is why I cannot comment on it. Either positively or negatively..And whatever submission I have as I said it will become public later..."
"See our Indian Constitution is based on the fact that innocent until proven guilty. So by media trial proving me guilty, is actually wrong on everybody's part..," she quipped.
Meanwhile, the Pune police have not been able to get in touch with Manorama Khedkar, Puja Khedkar's mother in connection with a case registered against her over a land dispute.
The police have registered a first information report (FIR) against Manorama and her husband Dilip Khedkar besides five others, after a video showing her allegedly threatening some persons with a gun over a land dispute emerged. A team with a senior officer of the Pune Rural police have been visiting Manorama's bungalow at Baner Road in the city but has not been able to track her down, the official said.
"We visited the house on Sunday and today, but have not been able to enter the premises. Her mobile phone is also switched off. Once we find her, an enquiry will be set up and legal action will be taken," the official said.
Pune Rural Police have booked the Khedkar couple and five others under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), including section 323 (dishonest or fraudulent removal or concealment of property), at Paud police station.
The case was registered days after a video surfaced on social media, which showed Manorama, accompanied by her security guards, engaged in a heated argument with some people with a pistol in her hand in Dhadwali village in Pune's Mulshi tehsil.
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