- Manorama Khedkar denies wrongdoing and distances herself from allegations against her family
- "I have done nothing wrong. Dilip Khedkar and I have no relationship; we are divorced," she told NDTV
- She is accused of kidnapping a truck helper after a road collision in Navi Mumbai
Manorama Khedkar, the mother of former Indian Administrative Service probationer Puja Khedkar, now at the centre of two scandals, denied any wrongdoing and sought to separate herself from the mounting allegations against her family.
"I have done nothing wrong. Dilip Khedkar and I have no relationship; we are divorced. I have no role in the kidnapping of the truck cleaner. I have done nothing. I did not run away; I was out on my own business. All the allegations against me are false," she told NDTV.
Manorama Khedkar faces a string of criminal allegations that have taken several strange turns over the past 15 months -- from a viral land-dispute video that prompted arrests and an arms act charge in 2024, to this a road-rage case in which the family is accused of kidnapping a truck helper after a collision on the Mulund-Airoli road in Navi Mumbai.
"The video of the gun that has been viral for some time is a real video. I did show the gun, but those people came to my farm, so I only protected my farm. I do not know where Dilip Khedkar is. I have not spoken to him. I do not know why Dilip came to my house that day. You should ask him. I have not destroyed any evidence. I have been framed," Manorama Khedkar told NDTV.
The earlier controversy began last summer when an old video surfaced of a woman, identified by police and later by courts as Manorama Khedkar, brandishing a pistol during a dispute with local farmers over land.
That footage prompted a Pune Police FIR, the seizure of the pistol and, for a time, Khedkar's arrest. Police added severe charges, including an attempt-to-murder count and violations of the Arms Act, citing the video and subsequent statements by the complainant.
In the second controversy, police allege that after a minor collision on September 13, when a cement-mixer truck grazed an SUV owned by Dilip Khedkar, the matter escalated into a kidnapping. The truck's helper, identified as Prahlad Kumar, was driven to the Khedkars' Pune bungalow and confined there. According to police, when search teams tried to locate the helper, they faced obstruction.
Police say Manorama Khedkar prevented officers from entering the premises and, in one account, released dogs to intimidate the cops. The helper was eventually traced and rescued after his phone signal was tracked to Pune.
On September 30, a local court in Navi Mumbai granted interim relief to Manorama Khedkar in the case. Police told the court they needed the accused in custody to progress the investigation. Authorities have issued lookout notices for Dilip Khedkar, who according to police remains missing.
