- By Anushka Vats
- Tue, 16 Jul 2024 08:52 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Amid the ongoing controversy over the alleged misuse of OBC and the disability quota, IAS trainee Pooja Khedkar on Tuesday accused Pune Collector Suhas Divase of harassment. Khedkar recently came under fire after it was alleged that she had misused the quota to get a rank in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). A probe Committee has been formed to investigate the matter.
"Women police personnel visited Khedkar at her residence in Washim on Monday when she lodged a complaint of harassment against Pune district collector Suhas Diwase," an official was quoted by PTI.
Earlier in the day, Khedkar refused to elaborate on the purpose of the visit by police personnel while speaking to TV news channels.
"I had called female police personnel because I had some work," she had said.
Not only Pooja, but her mother has been in the headlines recently. A video of her mother, Manorama, brandishing a gun went viral. A show-cause notice was also sent to her for the same. The incident in the video was about a land parcel bought by Puja's father Dilip Khedkar, a retired Maharashtra government officer, in Dhadwali village in Pune's Mulshi tehsil, an official earlier said. Locals had claimed the Khedkars had encroached on the land of neighbouring farmers.
A case was also registered against her under the Arms Act in the Pune rural police jurisdiction on the complaint of a local farmer who alleged that Manorama Khedkar and others had threatened him.
Let's take a look at all the updates in the case:
- Another video of Pooja's mother arguing with Metro rail construction workers in Pune has went viral. The video shows her arguing with the Metro rail construction workers, where some police personnel are also present. But the exact date of the clip, which lasts 27 seconds, is not known.
- The district training program of Pooja was also put on hold by the government on Tuesday as she was summoned back to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration for "necessary action".
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- A letter by Maharashtra additional chief secretary Nitin Gadre said the Mussoorie-based Lal Bahadur Shastri academy had decided to put her district training programme on hold, and immediately recalled her.
- Khedkar, transferred to Washim from Pune amid allegations of manipulation of disability and OBC certificates for getting into the civil services, claimed that she was being defamed.
- The authenticity of various certificates submitted by her to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), one of them indicating visual impairment, will be probed as instructed by the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, police said earlier in the day.
- Khedkar had earlier submitted two certificates, provided by the Ahmednagar District Civil Hospital in 2018 and 2021, to the UPSC under the Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) category. Additionally, she had applied for a disability certificate from the Aundh government hospital in Pune in August 2022, but after medical tests her application was rejected.
- Speaking to reporters in Washim, Khedkar said she had been the victim of a misinformation campaign. Fake news was being published about her every day, she said.
- Pooja Khedkar was transferred from Pune, where she was posted as assistant collector, to Washim as a supernumerary assistant collector after she was first accused of demanding perks and facilities to which she was not entitled as a trainee official.
