Delhi court denies anticipatory bail to former IAS probationer Puja Khedkar

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 PTIAdditional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala said Delhi Police must also investigate if anyone from inside the UPSC helped Khedkar reported PTIThe 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 entitlementThe UPSC on Wednesday cancelled former IAS probationer Puja Khedkars candidature and debarred her from future examsThe 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 PTIDuring 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 PTIThis 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 PTIShe was accused of misrepresenting information in her application for the Union Public Service Commission UPSC Civil Services Examination 2022Meanwhile 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 selectionsThe UPSC has examined the available records carefully and found her guilty of acting in contravention of the provisions of the CSE2022 Rules the Union Public Service Commission UPSC said in a statementIt said the provisional candidature of the 2023 batch probationary IAS officer for the CSE2022 Civil Services Examination2022 has been cancelled and she has also been debarred permanently from all future examinations or selections conducted by the UPSC reported PTIThe 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 PTIIt said the UPSC was in the process of further strengthening the SOP to ensure that such a case does not recur in the futureThe commission said a showcause 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 identityShe 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 saidThe UPSC granted her a final opportunity to submit her response by 330 pm on July 30 but she failed to submit her explanation within the prescribed time the commission saidThe commission said in the backdrop of the case of Khedkar it thoroughly examined the data of more than 15000 finally recommended candidates from the civil services exams for the last 15 years 20092023 with respect to the number of attempts availed by them reported PTIAfter 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 rulesIn 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 PTITaking 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 PTIThe 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 attemptsThe 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 othersWith inputs from PTI