Robbery attempt at family’s bungalow: Attempt to murder us, says Puja Khedkar’s father

Puja’s father on Tuesday held a press conference in Pune in which he said, “This was an attempt to murder us. The drugs that were used for the murder attempt are the drugs that are not easily available in medical stores. To search for the anti-drugs of these sedatives, we had to go to hospitals across the city. We had to be treated in the ICU. You can go to Ruby Hall hospital and verify what I am saying.”

Referring to the probes against the Khedkar family in the past, Dilip said, “When small incidents happen from our side the administration and police make such a big issue of it. A small quarrel on a farm is investigated by the Crime Branch. Ten-twelve teams are formed for the search. And when we were fighting for our lives for five days, the police did not take cognizance of it. Within half an hour after the incident we had given details like name, address and passport of the perpetrators but still they managed to flee and reach their home 2,000 kilometres away. There is no development in the case.”

“In the past, the police have scaled the gate of our house to take information from us. But after this incident no senior officer has come to our house. After this incident, when we were fighting for our lives, Police commissioner Amitesh Kumar cancelled the licence of our firearm. My daughter has identified and shared details of suspects, who had used dangerous sharp weapons. And then instead of giving police protection to us, our weapon licence was cancelled. This is a double standards by police. This was neither theft, nor dacoity but an attempt to murder us by giving us drugs,” he said.

Meanwhile, Puja has written to the Pune city police and sought a thorough investigation into the case alleging that it was attempted murder.

A senior police officer said, “It is baseless to say that police are neglecting the probe. It is the police who have registered a suo motu case. One arrest has been made and search is on for the prime suspect and his accomplices.”

In September last year, Dilip and his bodyguard were named as accused in an abduction of a truck helper following a road rage incident in Navi Mumbai. Hours after Navi Mumbai police rescued the truck helper who was allegedly abducted and brought to the residence Puja Khedkar, Pune city police had booked her mother, Manorama Khedkar, for obstructing the investigation. She allegedly helped her husband and his bodyguard flee, prevented the police from entering the house and unleashed an aggressive dog to stop the police from conducting a search, police said earlier. Dilip had later obtained anticipatory bail in the case.

In September 2024, the Union government dismissed Puja from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) after the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) cancelled her selection. Khedkar was found guilty of cheating and wrongly availing benefits of Other Backward Classes (OBC) and disability quota. After cancelling her selection, the UPSC had barred her from taking the entrance exam for life. UPSC found that Khedkar had allegedly availed attempts beyond the permissible limit provided for in the Examination Rules by allegedly faking her identity. After the controversy surrounding Puja, a video of Manorama allegedly threatening some farmers at gunpoint had surfaced. She was booked by Pune rural police on the charge of attempt to murder in connection to the June 2023 incident. She was later released on bail.