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| Puja Khedkar's mother in police custody till July 20; attempt to murder charge added to FIR | | | Agencies
PUNE, July 18: Police on Thursday told a court in Maharashtra's Pune district that they had invoked IPC section 307 for attempt to murder against Manorama Khedkar, mother of IAS probationer Puja Khedkar, as they sought her custody for five days in a land dispute case.
Cops also called Manorama, her husband Dilip and three others, all shown as accused in the FIR, as "influential and politically active" persons, in the court in Paud that remanded Manorama in police custody till July 20.
Police had launched a search for Manorama and her husband Dilip Khedkar after a video surfaced showing her allegedly threatening some persons with a gun over a land dispute at Dhadwali village in Pune's Mulshi tehsil in 2023. The Paud police in Pune rural have booked the Khedkar couple and five others under IPC sections, including 307, 144 (unlawful assembly armed with deadly weapon), 147 (rioting) and 506 (criminal intimidation) besides invoking the Arms Act.
Manorama was apprehended in the morning from a lodge, where she was hiding, at Hirkaniwadi village near Mahad in Raigad district and brought to the Paud police station before being placed under arrest, Superintendent of Police, Pune Rural, Pankaj Deshmukh, had said earlier.
She was later produced before a judicial magistrate (first class) at Paud.
Manorama, her husband Dilip and three others have been accused of threatening one Pandharinath Pasalkar (65) with a gun over a land dispute at Dhadwali village in Pune's Mulshi tehsil on June 4, 2023.
Justifying the addition of IPC section 307 in the FIR, the prosecution told the court that the accused had put the gun on the complainant's head. When she was about to pull the trigger, the complainant ducked in fear, while the other accused restrained her, police told the court.
Manorama is neither cooperating with the investigators nor sharing information concerning the whereabouts of Dilip Khedkar and the other three accused and details about the pistol and the four-wheeler used in the crime, police claimed.
Calling the accused "influential and politically active" persons, police said they wanted to confiscate the weapon and needed her custodial interrogation for that purpose. The prosecution also said police wanted to trace the other accused in the case.
Police said Manorama has some land in the Mulshi region of Pune district and they needed to check whether she had threatened any other people with the gun.
Defence Counsel Nikhil Malani opposed the prosecution's plea for police custody, contending that Manorama had filed a case against the complainant in this matter. A chargesheet was also filed in that case, he said.
The present complainant was on the backfoot (due to the case filed against him). But after a video went viral on social media recently, he came forward and filed a case against his client," said Malani.
He argued that when the case was first registered against his client, all the sections in the FIR were non-bailable but the police abruptly added IPC section 307 (attempt to murder) on July 17. Since it is a non-bailable section, she was arrested, he said. |
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