By Diana George

Copyright timesnownews

Sacked IAS officer Puja Khedkar is back in the spotlight over a missing truck driver. Police say that the victim driver had gone missing from an accident site in Navi Mumbai and has now been traced to Khedkar’s Pune residence. As per the police, the truck driver was involved in an accident with a car at Airoli signal in Navi Mumbai. “Driver Prahlad Kumar was driving his mixer truck when his vehicle hit a car with number plate MH 12 RT 5000,” said the police. The police said that the situation escalated when “two people in the car forcibly made Prahlad Kumar sit in their car and took him with them”. The driver went missing soon after. The police probe led them to Khedkar’s residence in Pune’s Chatushringi area. Police said the missing driver was rescued from her home. However, officers faced resistance during the rescue. “Pooja Khedkar’s mother, Manorama Khedkar, misbehaved with the police, refused to open the door and obstructed police action,” officials said. Following this, summons were issued to Manorama Khedkar, directing her to appear at the police station for questioning. This is not the first time the Khedkar family has been in the news. Last year, a video showed Manorama Khedkar brandishing a gun during a heated argument, sparking public anger and leading to her arrest from Hirkaniwadi village in Raigad. Puja Khedkar herself has a controversial past. In September last year, the Centre dismissed her from the Indian Administrative Service after the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) cancelled her selection. She was found guilty of “cheating and wrongly availing Other Backward Classes (OBC) and disability quota benefits”.