Maharashtra
IAS Puja Khedkar Used OBC Quota To Get Admission In MBBS; ‘She Didn’t Submit Disability Certificate’, Claims College Director
The trainee IAS officer, Puja Khedkar, who is at the center of a controversy involving alleged misuse of power and violation of the appointment rules, secured admission to an MBBS college using the OBC non-creamy layer quota, reports showed on Monday.
Khedkar was admitted to Pune’s Kashibai Navale Medical College under the OBC Nomadic Tribe-3 category, reserved for the Vanjari community.
At the time of her admission, her father was a serving bureaucrat in Maharashtra. Reports suggest that Khedkar’s admission was through the private college’s entrance examination, bypassing her Common Entrance Test (CET) score.
However, Arvind Bhore, the director of Kashibai Navale Medical College, contested this claim, stating that Khedkar was admitted in 2007 through the CET. Bhore also noted that she had submitted the necessary certificates, along with a medical fitness certificate that did not mention any disability.
The scrutiny of Khedkar’s non-creamy OBC status and her Persons with Benchmark Disability (PwBD) certificate intensified after she allegedly demanded a separate cabin and staff during her posting in Pune, which led to her abrupt transfer to Washim district.
In August 2022, Khedkar applied for a PwBD certificate in Pune, but the medical board denied her request.
It was reported that the board found it “not possible” to issue the certificate after examining her.
Khedkar’s father defends legitimacy of her disability certificate
Khedkar’s father, retired bureaucrat Dilip Khedkar, defended the legitimacy of the disability certificate, stating that Puja suffers from vision impairment exceeding 40 per cent, meeting the criteria for disability.
He further claimed that a panel of medical experts verified her disabilities before issuing the certificate.
Khedkar mentioned that his daughter has a certain category of mental illness, which was also verified by medical professionals before the disability certificate was granted.
Pune police unable to track down Khedkar’s parents
Meanwhile, Police have been unable to trace Khedkar’s parents as a land dispute case was registered against them after a video of her mother threatening a farmer with a pistol in Pune district went viral.
As per reports, a team of Pune Rural police visited the bungalow of Manorama and Dilip Khedkar in the Baner area of the city on Monday morning. But it was unable to enter the premises as there was no response, and doors were locked from the inside.
The police are conducting searches in Pune and other areas to find the controversial trainee IAS officer’s parents.
An FIR was registered against the Khedkar couple and five others after a video showing Manorama allegedly threatening some persons with a gun over a land dispute emerged.
“A case has been registered at Paud police station. But the Khedkars have not visited the police station for inquiry and have turned off their mobile phones. Our teams are looking for them. Once found, they will be questioned, and legal action will be taken against them,” an official told.
The Khedkars and five others have been booked under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), including section 323 (dishonest or fraudulent removal or concealment of property) and the Arms Act.
The case was registered days after a video surfaced on social media, which showed Manorama, accompanied by her security guards, engaged in a heated argument with some people with a pistol in her hand in Dhadwali village in Pune’s Mulshi tehsil. The police are looking for others involved in the incident, including the guards, seen in the video.
Maharashtra
Path paved for implementation of Uniform Civil Code in the state, announcement of 7-member committee in Maharashtra Assembly to draft UCC : Devendra Fadnavis

Mumbai: The path for the implementation of Uniform Civil Code (UCC) has been paved in the state as well and the Chief Minister has approved a 7-member legal drafting committee to ensure the implementation of the uniform law. After this, a 7-member committee has been formed today which will prepare the draft of UCC and present it in the upcoming Nagpur Assembly. Uttarakhand was the first state to implement UCC, now the state of Maharashtra has made progress in implementing UCC.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has formed a 7-member committee in the state assembly today to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the state. This committee has been formed under the chairmanship of Justice Ranjana Desai and it has to submit a report within 6 months. This detail was presented by the state assembly here by the state chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. He said that the constitution of the country gives the provincial governments the authority to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). On the same line, many states have also approved the draft of the UCC and the UCC has also been implemented here. Along with this, a 7-member committee has been formed in Maharashtra to ensure the implementation of the UCC. After the analytical and study report of this committee, the UCC will be implemented. This report will be presented within a period of 6 months and it is expected to be presented in the upcoming Nagpur winter session. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had earlier announced the formation of a committee regarding the draft of the UCC. The formation of this committee was approved today. And now this committee will present an analytical report related to UCC.
Maharashtra
Member of milk adulteration gang arrested, 470 liters of adulterated milk seized

A team led by Sandeep Patil (in-charge of Unit 12) under the supervision of DCP Nunath Dhawale of Mumbai Crime Branch arrested an accused involved in milk adulteration in Dahisar area on Thursday. The police seized about 470 litres of adulterated milk, which is attributed to the brand names of Gokul and Amul, from the spot. The police had been receiving complaints of milk adulteration for the last few days. Acting on the instructions of Commissioner of Police Devin Bharti, Joint CP (Crime) Anil Kumbhare, and Additional CP Krishnakant Upadhyay, the operation was launched under the leadership of DCP Nunath Dhawale, which included ACP Ravinder Adane and Sandeep Patil, in-charge of Unit 12. After this operation, the gang involved in milk adulteration was exposed. Along with this, after the action of the FDA, the Mumbai Crime Branch has also tightened its grip on those selling adulterated milk.
Maharashtra
‘Don’t threaten Oppn, you are the Chief Minister’: Raj Thackeray targets Fadnavis over Mumbai e-way ‘Missing Link’ tunnel leak

Mumbai, July 9: Launching a scathing attack on Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis over the recent water leakage inside the Mumbai-Pune Expressway ‘Missing Link’ tunnel, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) Chief Raj Thackeray on Thursday accused the MahaYuti government of hiding its failures behind emotional rhetoric.
Addressing the anniversary event of the MNS Railway Kamgar Sena, the MNS Chief questioned the Chief Minister’s defence in the Legislative Assembly and hit back at his remarks warning the Opposition against “politicising” the issue.
Taking a swipe at Chief Minister Fadnavis’s objection to the Opposition’s criticism, Raj Thackeray said, “Wow! He (Devendra Fadnavis) says don’t politicise it. When anyone speaks out, it becomes ‘politics’ to them. What were you doing all those years when you were in the Opposition? Weren’t the agitations you staged against previous governments ‘politics’? Now that the heat is on you, you claim the Opposition is playing politics.”
He also dismissed the Chief Minister’s emotional appeal in the House, where Devendra Fadnavis had said that he could tolerate personal attacks but not the insult of Maharashtra.
“People are raising genuine questions about the Missing Link project. Where is the insult to Maharashtra in that?” he asked.
“If anyone speaks against the Central government, they are labelled ‘anti-national’. If someone speaks about the Missing Link, it is called an insult to Maharashtra! Are citizens not supposed to ask you questions at all?” Raj Thackeray added.
The MNS Chief also targeted Chief Minister Fadnavis for issuing warnings to critics and suddenly shifting languages during his Assembly speech.
“The Chief Minister (Devendra Fadnavis) declared in the Assembly that the Missing Link features top-notch construction quality and threatened to ‘deal with’ those politicising it. Listen, you are the Chief Minister. What do you mean by ‘I will deal with you’?” Raj Thackeray remarked.
The MNS Chief also said, “After saying all this, the Chief Minister suddenly started speaking in Hindi. Who was he speaking in Hindi for? The MLAs sitting in front of him are Marathi, the Legislative Assembly belongs to Maharashtra, yet our Chief Minister speaks in Hindi. Why? Perhaps Devendra Fadnavis wanted to send a message to his party bosses at the top, telling them that ‘I will deal with them’. Even he (Devendra Fadnavis) knows where these leak videos are originating from. There is massive internal infighting brewing within the BJP — just wait and watch what happens next.”
Turning his focus to the state of infrastructure, Raj Thackeray alleged widespread corruption in government contracts, claiming it has severely compromised construction quality.
“They (MahaYuti government) have completely ruined Mumbai, Maharashtra, and Thane, and this government calls it ‘development’. Construction is happening everywhere you look; the Chief Minister should just shut down all this construction. Building just roads and flyovers does not equate to development. I honestly don’t understand what these people learn when they travel abroad,” the MNS Chief said.
Highlighting the structural flaws of the mega-project, Raj Thackeray said, “The Missing Link project was inaugurated on May 1. Now, in July, water is leaking through it. A brand-new tunnel started leaking within just 60 to 65 days! During the inauguration, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was boasting about how materials for the project were sourced from various countries. But the moment you hand it over to Indian contractors, they do exactly what they always do.”
He concluded with a serious allegation regarding contractor kickbacks.
“Some contractors are openly saying that they have to pay 56 per cent of the contract value as bribes to people in the state government. If they have to execute the project with just the remaining 44 per cent of the budget, this is exactly the kind of roads you are going to get,” the MNS Chief said.
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