Cops ask Puja Khedkar for statement on harassment charges against collector
Pune police ask trainee IAS officer Puja Khedkar to record statement on harassment allegations against district collector; case under investigation.
Pune: The Pune police have asked trainee IAS officer Puja Khedkar to record her statement regarding allegations of harassment against the Pune district collector, a senior officer said on Wednesday.
Amitesh Kumar, Pune police commissioner, said, “Khedkar has been asked to come to Pune to give her statement.”
“I am not aware of any such complaint against me. No one communicated to me about this. So, there is no question of giving a reaction. I came to know about this complaint only through media reports,” said Suhas Diwase, Pune district collector.
Another official said correspondence by the Pune police asking Khedkar to record her statement was served to her at her temporary residence in Washim on Wednesday. Khedkar is under scrutiny for her claims regarding disability and OBC certificates used to clear the IAS, as well as her conduct during her tenure at the Pune collectorate.
She was transferred to Washim as a supernumerary assistant collector from Pune after Diwase submitted a report to senior officials about her behaviour. Allegations against her include demanding facilities she was not entitled to as a trainee IAS official and occupying the antechamber of a senior official.
A three-member women police team led by a DCP-rank officer had visited Khedkar at her residence in Washim at around 10:30 pm on Monday, where she lodged a complaint of harassment against Diwase, an official said on Tuesday. The complaint has been forwarded to Pune police for further action.
Amid the row, the government on Tuesday put on hold the “district training programme” of Khedkar as she was summoned back to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration for “necessary action”.
Meanwhile, Pune rural police handed over the case in which Puja’s parents, Manorama and Dilip Khedkar, were booked for brandishing a gun, rioting and threatening local farmers to the local crime branch unit as they are facing manpower shortage due to regular and wari bandobast.
The Paud police on Friday had lodged a case as per the complaint filed by Pandharinath Pasalkar, 65, against Manorama, Dilip and six others under Sections 323, 504, 506, 143, 144, 147, 148, 149 of the IPC and Sections 3 (25) of the Arms Act.
(With agency inputs)