Controversial IAS probationer Puja Khedkar, under the scanner for abuse of power and privileges, has been “immediately recalled” to the Mussoorie-based Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration with her current training in Maharashtra’s Washim district put on hold.
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A statement issued by the Maharashtra government’s General Administration Department on July 16 said Ms. Khedkar was relieved from the District Training Programme of the Government of Maharashtra and had been instructed to “join the academy at the earliest but not later than July 23 under any circumstances.”
Ms. Khedkar shot to infamy after revelations concerning her abuse of power (seeking perks not allotted to trainee IAS officers) and faking disability and her OBC certificate came to light, which made her to be transferred to Washim as a supernumerary assistant collector from Pune, where she was originally posted.
After disclosures of Ms. Khedkar installing a beacon on her private luxury sedan and illegally putting a Government of Maharashtra sticker on her car came to light, skeletons began tumbling from the cupboard of the Khedkar family itself with revelations emerging of the misdemeanours committed by her parents — Manorama and Dilip Khedkar.
Also Read: IAS officer Puja Khedkar’s mother detained for threatening people with a gun over a land dispute
FIR against parents
The Pune police have registered a first information report (FIR) against Ms. Khedkar’s parents after a 2023 video clip showing Ms. Manorama Khedkar allegedly threatening a farmer with a gun over a land dispute surfaced in the wake of the controversy surrounding Ms. Puja Khedkar.
Even as Ms. Khedkar’s decried the affair as a “media trial”, officials are probing the authenticity of the various certificates furnished by her before the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
Ms. Khedkar had earlier submitted two certificates provided by the Ahmednagar District Civil Hospital in 2018 and 2021, to the UPSC under the Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) category.
While being sent by the UPSC for a medical check-up at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences, she skipped as many as six appointments between April and August 2022.
It has also emerged that she had applied for a disability certificate from Pune’s Aundh government hospital in August 2022 but that her application was rejected.
Published - July 16, 2024 05:45 pm IST
