The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Wednesday cancelled the provisional candidature of IAS trainee Puja Khedkar and debarred her from taking exams in the future. Khedkar has been accused of fraudulently availing the civil services examination by faking her identity to take the exam beyond the permissible number of attempts.
A case under sections 420 (cheating), 464 (making a document in the name of a fictitious person), 465 (forgery) and 471 (passing off a forged document as genuine) of IPC and under sections 89 and 91 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act and 66D of the Information Technology Act was registered against Khedkar after the UPSC filed a complaint against her.
Khedkar has been at the centre of a controversy after she was transferred to Washim from Pune earlier this month amid allegations that she abused her power. Wile Puja Khedkar was embroiled in a row after social posts started questioning her merits, more details came out in the following days about her getting a fake disability certificate.
Here’s a Timeline of the Puja Khedkar case:
- Disability Certificates: Puja Khedkar secured a visually-impaired certificate from the Ahmednagar district hospital in 2019. In 2021, she secured a combined certificate for visual impairment and mental illness from the same hospital. In 2022, she secured a certificate mentioning locomotor disability in her left knee from Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital, Pimpri. Reports say while applying for the certificate, she showed a fake ration card, claiming to be a resident of Pimpri-Chinchwad.
- On July 8, Khedkar was transferred from Pune to Washim on July 8 for allegedly abusing her power. She demanded perks and favours despite her probationary period. In addition to this, she seized the office of an additional collector.
- This was followed by demands on social media users, digging out her fake certificates, that the UPSC dismisses her.
- On July 16, the probationary officer was relieved from the Maharashtra District Training Programme and was recalled to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) in Mussoorie, where her training was suspended.
- On July 17, an old video purportedly showing Puja Khedkar’s mother Manorama arguing with Metro train construction workers in Pune surfaced, days after another clip of her wielding a gun and threatening farmers went viral.
- On July 17, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) took action against alleged encroachments outside Khedkar family’s bungalow in Baner, Pune. A bulldozer was deployed to clear encroachments on the footpath adjacent to her residence. The Khedkar family had reportedly beautified their property by extending into the footpath area with trees and plants, prompting a notice from PMC. Despite the notice, no response was received from the family, leading to the bulldozer operation.
- On July 18, Manorama Khedkar was arrested by Pune Rural police for allegedly possessing an illegal firearm and brandishing a gun at farmers during a land dispute.
- On July 18, reports surfaced that Dilip Khedkar, Puja’s father, had faced suspension twice during his tenure, with both instances linked to allegations of corruption.
- On July 19, the UPSC filed an FIR against Puja Khedkar on charges of cheating. Following a thorough inquiry in which the UPSC found her guilty, the commission also issued a show-cause notice to Khedkar, asking why her candidature as an IAS officer should not be cancelled in light of the allegations related to fake certificates. Simultaneously, the Delhi Police crime branch also lodged an FIR against Khedkar under the IT Act and sections of cheating and forgery.
- On July 19, the Pimpri-Chinchwad civic body sealed an engineering firm linked to Khedkar’s mother over unpaid property tax amounting to nearly Rs 2 lakh.
- On July 19, a sessions court granted interim protection from arrest till July 25 to Dilip Khedkar in a case where he has been accused of threatening a person with a gun over a land dispute, the same case that Khedkar’s mother was arrested in.
- On July 19, Pune Rural Police confiscated a high-end car, a licensed Pistol and three bullets from Manorama Khedkar’s Pune residence.
- On July 22, a court in Pune district remanded Manorama Khedkar to judicial custody for 14 days.
- Puja Khedkar, who was ordered by Mussoorie-based Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) to join the institute latest by July 23, did not report on the said date.
- On July 26, Pune Police sent a report about the marital status of the parents of Puja Khedkar to the Maharashtra government. The couple, Dilip and Manorama Khedkar, were “legally separated”, the police official told PTI, without disclosing more details.
- On July 31, the UPSC cancelled the provisional candidature of IAS trainee Puja Khedkar and debarred her from taking exams in the future.
Comments
0 comment