PUNE:
Maharashtra police
have launched a probe into two new videos that surfaced Saturday, one of which purportedly shows IAS trainee officer
Puja Khedkar
's father
Dilip Khedkar
on Lok Sabha poll campaign trail in
Ahmednagar
in a Mitsubishi Pajero with a Government of India brass plate on the front bumper.
The other video purportedly shows another vehicle, a
Toyota Land Cruiser
, with a similar plate in Khedkar's convoy.
Dilip, a retired senior Maharashtra govt official, was a
VBA candidate
from Ahmednagar constituency in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. Law prohibits use of such brass plates on private vehicles.
The Toyota Land Cruiser, incidentally, is the same vehicle in an older video in which Puja's mother Manorama is seen to have travelled to Pune's Mulshi village on June 5, 2023, where she is seen waving a pistol at farmers.
Authorities at Pune regional transport office confirmed the Mitsubishi Pajero seen in the video was registered on Sept 25, 2009, in the name of Thermoverita Engineering Pvt Ltd. The same company also holds the registration for the Audi car which Puja used during her posting at Pune collector's office with a red and blue beacon light and 'Maharashtra govt' plate on it.
The Toyota Land Cruiser was registered on Aug 6, 2019, in the name of Pooja Automobiles, in which Manorama and Dilip are partners, according to their election affidavits.
Pune joint commissioner of police Ranjan Kumar Sharma told TOI: "The two videos have originated from Ahmednagar district and police there are taking necessary action." Ahmednagar SP Rakesh Ola confirmed the probe.
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