 |
| Dr. Medha Khole |
8/09/2017
PUNE: A case of
impersonation has been registered against a woman for allegedly lying about her
caste and marital status while taking up the job of a cook during a ritual
called ‘Sowala’ with a Brahmin family in Pune.
Dr Medha Vinayak Khole (50), Deputy Director General (Weather
Forecasting), India Meteorological Department (IMD), got the FIR lodged at
Sinhagad Road police station. Police then booked the accused, identified as
Nirmala Yadav, a resident of Samarth Complex, Raikar Mala, Wadgaon Dhayari.
In her complaint, Khole, who resides with her advocate sister
Varsha Khole at Sitapark society, Shivajinagar, stated that every year their
family performs the religious rituals of ‘Sowala’, for which they require a female
cook who is a Brahmin and ‘suvasini (married and husband is alive).
In May 2016, a woman identifying herself as Nirmala Kulkarni
allegedly approached Khole for this work. Khole stated that she went to Nirmala’s
house in Wadgaon Dhayari for inquiry. Nirmala had then allegedly told Khole
that she is a Brahmin and “suvasini”. Since then Khole has been calling Nirmala
to cook at her house during religious rituals. Nirmala reportedly also cooked
at Khole’s house during the Ganesh festival in August last week. The Khole
family reportedly paid Nirmala Rs 15,000-20,000 for her work since May 2016.
According to the complaint, Khole got to know from their
priest that Nirmala was not a Brahmin. So Khole went to Nirmala’s house around
8.30 pm and questioned her about her caste and marital status. Nirmala then
allegedly told Khole that her surname was Yadav and not Kulkarni and that she
was not a “suvasini”.
This led to arguments between Khole and Nirmala. Khole alleged
that Nirmala abused and manhandled her. Khole went to the police station to
lodge the complaint against Nirmala, alleging that she had hurt their religious
sentiments.
Police sources said they tried to convince Khole against
registering such a complaint, but she was adamant. Nirmala was booked under
Sections 419 (cheating by impersonation), 352 (punishment for assault or
criminal force otherwise than on grave provocation), 504 (Intentional insult
with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Assistant police inspector Jyoti Gadkari, who is investigation
the case, said, “An FIR has been lodged on the basis of allegations made by the
complainant. Further action will be taken as per the outcome of the
investigation.” When contacted, Khole told pune-news.com
that she would talk about the case in some time.
Khole still holds her post at IMD, Pune, but is known to be on leave for over a year.
0 comments:
Post a Comment