Puja Khedkar’s IAS training put on hold amid fake certificate row | India News

NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday put Puja Khedkar‘s IAS training on hold amid a fake certificate probe and directed her to return to the academy in Mussoorie at the earliest.
Khedkar has also been relieved from the District Training Programme of the Maharashtra government.
“LBSNAA, Mussoorie has decided to keep your District Training Program on hold and immediately recall you for further necessary action…,” the letter from Nitin Gadre, additional chief secretary (P) read.

Puja Khedkar has been in the eye of the storm for alleged misuse of power and manipulating disability and OBC quotas.
Khedkar allegedly submitted fake disability and Other Backward Class (OBC) certificates to clear the civil services exam. Reports indicate she also submitted a mental illness certificate.
In April 2022, she was asked to report to Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for verification of her disability certificate but did not comply, citing a Covid-19 infection.
Khedkar is said to have recurrently failed to appear for mandatory medical tests to confirm her disability, despite having qualified for IAS in the ‘Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD)’ category.
The action comes after the central government established a single-member committee to examine the claims and details surrounding Khedkar’s candidature.
The ministry of personnel on July 13 had announced that the committee, chaired by a senior officer of the rank of Additional Secretary, would submit its report in two weeks.
Sources in the government told TOI that the panel of DoPT additional secretary Manoj Dwivedi will, over the next two weeks, probe how she obtained the documents establishing her disability and OBC status, and whether proper vetting was carried out by the issuing authority.
The panel will, in consultation with experts from AIIMS Delhi, also examine if the visual and mental disability claimed by her meets the benchmarks for employment in the government.
Curious case of two names
Puja Khedkar is also reportedly involved in another discrepancy where in she used two different names – Khedkar Puja Deeliprao and Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar.
In 2019, in her civil services prelims exam, the IAS trainee had registered herself as Khedkar Puja Deeliprao, and her appointment in SAI was also in the same name with Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) (LV) – OBC.
However, in her 2022 service allocation by Union Public Services Commission (UPSC), where she was selected for IAS, she went by the name Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar under the PwBD-multiple disabilities (MD) category.
In a Central Administrative Tribunal, Mumbai bench, order dated Feb 23, 2023, her name as the applicant was mentioned as Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar. Probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar had in August 2022 simultaneously applied for disability certificates for locomotor disability from District Civil Hospital, Aundh, and Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital, Pimpri, both in Pune, report Nisha Nambiar & Swati Shinde Gole.
She did so despite having secured disability certificates for low vision in 2018 and for mental depression and low vision in 2021 from the Ahmednagar district hospital.
The District Civil Hospital at Aundh had rejected her application because of “double submission”, while Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital (YCMH), Pimpri, granted a 7% locomotor disability certificate citing an old ACL tear.
In her defence amid the ongoing probe, Puja Khedkar on Monday said the “media trial” to prove her guilty was wrong.
“Everybody knows what is going on. So proving me guilty by media trial is wrong on everybody’s part. The Indian Constitution is based on the fact that you are innocent till proven guilty” she said.