The trainee IAS officer, Puja Khedkar, who is at the center of a controversy involving alleged misuse of power and violation of the appointment rules, secured admission to an MBBS college using the OBC non-creamy layer quota, reports showed on Monday.
According to a report by India Today TV, Khedkar was admitted to Pune's Kashibai Navale Medical College under the OBC Nomadic Tribe-3 category, reserved for the Vanjari community.
At the time of her admission, her father was a serving bureaucrat in Maharashtra. Reports suggest that Khedkar's admission was through the private college's entrance examination, bypassing her Common Entrance Test (CET) score.
However, Arvind Bhore, the director of Kashibai Navale Medical College, contested this claim, stating that Khedkar was admitted in 2007 through the CET. Bhore also noted that she had submitted the necessary certificates, along with a medical fitness certificate that did not mention any disability.
The scrutiny of Khedkar's non-creamy OBC status and her Persons with Benchmark Disability (PwBD) certificate intensified after she allegedly demanded a separate cabin and staff during her posting in Pune, which led to her abrupt transfer to Washim district.
In August 2022, Khedkar applied for a PwBD certificate in Pune, but the medical board denied her request.
It was reported that the board found it "not possible" to issue the certificate after examining her.
Khedkar's father defends legitimacy of her disability certificate
Khedkar's father, retired bureaucrat Dilip Khedkar, defended the legitimacy of the disability certificate, stating that Puja suffers from vision impairment exceeding 40 per cent, meeting the criteria for disability.
He further claimed that a panel of medical experts verified her disabilities before issuing the certificate.
Khedkar mentioned that his daughter has a certain category of mental illness, which was also verified by medical professionals before the disability certificate was granted.
Pune police unable to track down Khedkar's parents
Meanwhile, Police have been unable to trace Khedkar’s parents as a land dispute case was registered against them after a video of her mother threatening a farmer with a pistol in Pune district went viral.
As per reports, a team of Pune Rural police visited the bungalow of Manorama and Dilip Khedkar in the Baner area of the city on Monday morning. But it was unable to enter the premises as there was no response, and doors were locked from the inside.
The police are conducting searches in Pune and other areas to find the controversial trainee IAS officer’s parents.
An FIR was registered against the Khedkar couple and five others after a video showing Manorama allegedly threatening some persons with a gun over a land dispute emerged.
"A case has been registered at Paud police station. But the Khedkars have not visited the police station for inquiry and have turned off their mobile phones. Our teams are looking for them. Once found, they will be questioned, and legal action will be taken against them," an official told the news agency PTI.
The Khedkars and five others have been booked under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), including section 323 (dishonest or fraudulent removal or concealment of property) and the Arms Act.
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. The police are looking for others involved in the incident, including the guards, seen in the video.
