Puja Khedkar faked her identity to appear in IAS exam; FIR filed: UPSC

PUNE: The Union Public Service Commission on Friday said it has filed a first information report (FIR) against Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar and sent her show cause notice to cancel her appointment after an investigation revealed that she faked her identity by changing her name, photograph and other details to appear for the examination.

“From this investigation, it has been revealed that she fraudulently availed attempts beyond the permissible limit under the Examination Rules by faking her identity by way of changing her name, her father’s & mother’s name, her photograph/ signature, her email ID, mobile number and address,” UPSC said in a statement.

The commission said it has initiated criminal prosecution by filing a FIR and issued a show cause notice to Puja Khedkar for cancellation of her candidature of the Civil Services Examination-2022 and debarring her from future examinations in accordance with the examination rules.

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UPSC’s move came days after the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) in Mussoorie decided to keep her District Training Programme on hold and recalled her. Puja Khedkar has been ordered to return “under any circumstance” to the academy by July 23.

According to the rules, candidates from the general category can appear for the civil services exam a maximum of six times, and those from Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) can appear nine times.

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Till 2020-21, Puja Khedkar appeared for the examination under the OBC quota using the name – Puja Diliprao Khedkar. In 2021-22, after exhausting all the attempts, she reportedly appeared under the OBC and PwBC quotas - using the name ‘Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar’. She cleared the examination with a rank of 821 and was allocated the IAS because she cleared the exam under the quota for disabled candidates.

Puja Khedkar and her family’s troubles started after she was sent to the Pune collectorate for her district training where she made multiple requests for special privileges and was accused of abuse of power -- she used red-blue beacons on her private Audi sedan with a VIP registration number, and asked for privileged office space, including the room of a colleague.

On July 8, Puja was shunted from the Pune district to Washim.

Besides availing multiple attempts beyond permissible limits, Puja also faces allegations that she secured her position by claiming to qualify for quotas meant for Other Backward Classes and Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) without, in reality, being eligible for them.

The Maharashtra government also set up a probe to ascertain how she qualified for the OBC quota when her family’s assets ran into crores of rupees and she declared an annual income of ₹42 lakh in the financial disclosures submitted to the government before joining the service on January 28, 2023.

On July 16, the Ahmednagar district administration said Puja declared her mother’s annual income of ₹6.5 lakh while submitting documents with her application for a non-creamy layer certificate -- required for caste quotas to weed out wealthy applicants.

A probe by the central government also covers the claims she has made about her health condition, especially since she had failed to report to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) despite six summons to verify her claims but no questions were asked.

Given how the case had put the spotlight on how Khedkar had succeeded in gaming UPSC’s recruitment process, the public service recruitment body said: “It is categorically stated that in fulfilling its Constitutional obligations, the UPSC stringently adheres to its Constitutional mandate, and conducts all its processes, including all examinations, with the highest possible order of due diligence without any compromise. The UPSC has ensured the sanctity and integrity of all its examination processes with the utmost fairness and strict observance of Rules”.

“The UPSC has deservedly earned the trust and credibility of a very high order from the public, especially the candidates. The Commission is unequivocally committed to ensure that such high order of trust and credibility remains intact and uncompromised,” the statement said.