From agro to auto, Puja Khedkar and her family at centre of 8 firms linked to relatives and friends

The Diligence companies include Thermoverita Engineering, which owns the two luxury cars that have featured in controversies surrounding Puja and her father. Records show that its shareholders include Lata Bangar, who is the sister of Puja’s father Dilip, and her husband Mahadev Bangar. The company’s address is a commercial plot owned by Manorama in Pune’s Talawade — this address was also used by Puja to obtain the ration card for her disability certificate.

The other Diligence companies include two “sugar & agro” firms — all of them have the Khedkars or their close relatives and others linked to them listed as directors or shareholders.

The Indian Express tracked down records linked to the Diligence Group companies, and the automobile firm, and spoke to some of the key relatives of the Khedkars and others named in these commercial entities. This is what it found:

📌 Of the Diligence Group companies, Puja, who is identified as “Pooja” in records, held a 20% stake in Diligence Infraprojects in 2018. Her brother Piyush owned 50% stake in Om Deep Sugar & Agro in 2022. Their mother Manorama was a shareholder in three of these firms — Diligence Sugar & Agro, Diligence (India) Corporation and Diligence Infraprojects — at least until 2018.

📌 Except for Om Deep Sugar & Agro, none of the other six Diligence Group companies have filed their annual returns after 2019.

📌 Dilip’s brother-in-law Mahadev is linked in records to four Diligence companies. Mahadev is also a partner in Puja Automobiles, a tractor dealership run by Manorama in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra. Speaking to The Indian Express over phone, Mahadev claimed he was not involved in the functioning of these companies. “We are partners but the companies are now closed. There were other people involved as well. I don’t have much idea about these businesses. Khedkars are our relatives. Lata is Dilip Khedkar’s sister,” he said.

📌 Puja’s cousin Sancheet Hange is connected to four Diligence companies. At his family-owned farm in Pune’s Indapur taluka, Sancheet’s father Tanajirao Hange identified himself as a farmer and a former taluka office-bearer of the Congress. Asked why the Khedkars were using cars owned by a company in which his son is a director, Tanajirao said, “He (Sancheet) is a farmer by profession and I don’t know much about his involvement in the companies. Puja’s mother Manorama is my wife’s younger sister.” Tanajirao also claimed that Sancheet was travelling and could not be contacted.

📌 The names of a woman identified as Kavita Bendale and her son Akash feature in five Diligence companies, including Thermoverita. When The Indian Express visited Bendale’s Pune residence, she described the Khedkars as “casual acquaintances”. “We are simple, middle-class people. We know about the companies but don’t have any idea about their functioning or financials. We know the Khedkars casually. Our names are there (in the companies) because they (Khedkars) requested us,” she said.

Kavita’s son Akash is a shareholder in Om Deep Sugar & Agro Pvt Ltd, which was registered at a commercial property owned by Manorama in Pune’s Sadanand Apartment. Two other Diligence companies were also registered at this address. A fourth Diligence company used the address of a shop owned by Manorama in Pune’s Chandralok Apartment.

Eight companies linked to Puja Khedkar, her family, relatives and others known to them.

Apart from the UPSC probe, Puja and her parents are facing multiple probes for violations ranging from misuse of government symbols to unaccounted wealth.

Pune Traffic Police have seized the Audi car in which Puja travelled for multiple violations, including misuse of official beacon, VIP number plate and government insignia. Maharashtra police have, meanwhile, launched a probe into a video that purportedly featured Dilip in a Mitsubishi Pajero with a Government brass plate on the bumper. Both vehicles are registered in the name of Thermoverita.

Last week, a magisterial court remanded Manorama to two days of police custody for allegedly threatening farmers at gunpoint in Pune district in 2023.

A 2023-batch IAS officer, Puja also faces allegations of posing as an OBC non-creamy layer candidate in her UPSC candidature and refusing to take tests to corroborate her claims of visual and mental disabilities. Last week, she was recalled to the civil service training academy in Mussoorie.

Puja’s father Dilip retired from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board in 2020, and faces a complaint of unaccounted wealth for which the state’s Anti-Corruption Bureau has sought a report from its Ahmednagar unit. Records show that he declared wealth of over Rs 40 crore and an annual income of Rs 49 lakh while contesting the Lok Sabha polls as a Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi (VBA) candidate earlier this year. He got 13,749 votes.