Delhi court denies anticipatory bail to former IAS probationer Puja Khedkar

Puja Khedkar. File Photo/PTI

A Delhi court on Thursday denied anticipatory bail to former IAS probationer Puja Khedkar who has been accused of cheating and wrongly availing of OBC and PwD (person with disabilities) quota benefits, reported news agency PTI.

Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala said Delhi Police "must also investigate if anyone from inside the UPSC helped Khedkar", reported PTI.

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The judge also widened the probe in the case and directed Delhi Police to investigate if other persons have availed of benefits under OBC and PwD quotas without entitlement.

The UPSC on Wednesday cancelled former IAS probationer Puja Khedkar's candidature and debarred her from future exams.

The judge had on Wednesday reserved the order after hearing arguments on the application filed by former IAS probationer Puja Khedkar, who claimed through her lawyer that she has "imminent threat of arrest", reported PTI.

During the proceeding, the prosecution as well as the counsel appearing for the UPSC had opposed the application, claiming that she has "cheated the system", reported PTI.

"This person has abused the law and process of law. The chances of her abusing the law is still there. She is a resourceful person," the counsel appearing for the UPSC had claimed before the court, reported PTI.

She was accused of 'misrepresenting information' in her application for the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Services Examination, 2022.

Meanwhile, the UPSC on Wednesday said it has cancelled the provisional candidature of probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar and debarred her from all future examinations or selections.

"The UPSC has examined the available records carefully and found her guilty of acting in contravention of the provisions of the CSE-2022 Rules," the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) said in a statement.

It said the provisional candidature of the 2023 batch probationary IAS officer for the CSE-2022 (Civil Services Examination-2022) has been "cancelled" and she has also been "debarred permanently" from all future examinations or selections conducted by the UPSC, reported PTI.

The commission said it was the "lone case" of former IAS probationer Puja Khedkar in the last 15 years where it could not detect that a candidate has exceeded the number of attempts permitted to a candidate for writing the CSE exam "primarily due to the fact that she changed not only her name but also her parents' name", reported PTI.

It said the UPSC was in the process of "further strengthening the SOP to ensure that such a case does not recur in the future."

The commission said a show-cause notice was issued to Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar on July 18 for "fraudulently" availing attempts beyond the permissible limit in the examination by "faking" her identity.

She was asked to submit her response to the notice by July 25 but she requested time till August 4 to gather the necessary documents for her response, it said.

The UPSC granted her a "final opportunity" to submit her response by 3:30 pm on July 30 but she "failed to submit her explanation within the prescribed time", the commission said.

The commission said in the backdrop of the case of Khedkar, it "thoroughly examined" the data of more than 15,000 "finally recommended candidates" from the civil services exams for the last 15 years (2009-2023) with respect to the number of attempts availed by them, reported PTI.

After this detailed exercise, barring the case of Khedkar, no other candidate has been found to have availed more number of attempts than permitted under the CSE rules.

"In the lone case of Ms Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar, the standard operating procedure (SOP) of the UPSC could not detect her number of attempts primarily due to the fact that she changed not only her name but also her parents' name," it said, reported PTI.

Taking up the issue of complaints regarding the submission of false certificates (specifically OBC and PwBD categories) are concerned, the UPSC said it only does a "preliminary" scrutiny of the certificates like whether the certificate has been issued by the competent authority, the year to which the certificate pertains, issuing date of the certificate, whether there is any overwriting on the certificate, format of the certificate etc, reported PTI.

The UPSC has registered a police case against Khedkar for allegedly fraudulently availing attempts in the civil services examination by faking her identity to take the exam beyond the permissible attempts.

The commission conducts the civil services exam annually in three stages -- preliminary, main and interview -- to select officers for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS), among others.

(With inputs from PTI)