Where is Puja Khedkar's family? Parents 'absconding' after abducting truck driver
Prahlad Kumar, a truck driver, was allegedly abducted by Puja Khedkar's father and his bodyguard from Mulund-Airoli Road in Navi Mumbai.
Dismissed IAS probationer Puja Khedkar's father and his bodyguard are absconding amid allegations of kidnapping a truck driver in an SUV following a road rage incident in Navi Mumbai.
Along with Puja's father, Dilip Khedkar and his bodyguard, the vehicle in which the truck driver was allegedly kidnapped is also missing, news agency PTI reported, citing a Navi Mumbai Police official.
Manorma Khedkar, Puja Khedkar's mother, who allegedly did not let the police enter their family home in Pune while they were looking for the abducted driver, is also absconding, said the official on Tuesday.
What happened
A 22-year-old man named Prahlad Kumar, a truck driver, was allegedly abducted on Saturday evening from Mulund-Airoli Road in Navi Mumbai. Just a day later, Prahlad was rescued from Puja Khedkar’s family house in Pune.
According to police, the kidnapping happened after the mixer truck driven by Prahlad grazed a Land Cruiser, leading to a dispute between both the parties. The police said that there were two people in that Land Cruiser — Puja Khedkar's father Dilip Khedkar and his bodyguard, Praful Salunkhe.
Following the dispute, the two occupants of the SUV allegedly abudcted Prahlad and took him to their bunglow in Pune, said a police official. The kidnapping was allegedly done to get compensation for the damage the SUV suffered, said DCP (Zone I in Navi Mumbai) Pankaj Dahane on Tuesday, according to the PTI report.
Next day, when the police reached Pune to look for Prahlad, Puja Khedkar's mother Manorama did not let the police enter their home and assured the cops that she would bring both the accused to the police station on the same day, following which the cops left.
However, Manorama did not turn up to the police station.
"Believing her (Manorama), the police team left the spot. However, when they called her around 3 pm, she refused to come and told them to do whatever they wanted to," PTI quoted the official as saying.
When police went back to bungalow, they found that the vehicle involved the incident was missing.
The official added that Puja Khedkar's mother allegedly helped her husband and his driver flee and made sure that the vehicle was also removed from the scene. She even allegedly unleashed two dogs to scare the cops.
"Police have not been able to trace the two occupants of the car so far," the official said.
When a joint team of Pune and Navi Mumbai police went to the bungalow on Monday, they did not find Manorama Khedkar there. She now faces a case of obstructing a public servant in discharge of duties under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita's section 221 and other relevant sections.
(With inputs from PTI)
