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Mumbai: The IAS career of controversial trainee IAS officer Pooja Khedkar of Maharashtra has ended permanently. UPSC has cancelled her IAS candidature. Not only this, Pooja has also been banned from appearing in any UPSC examination in future. Pooja, who was embroiled in a controversy of wrong disability certificate and misuse of non-criminal layer, was also embroiled in controversies of installing red light on a private car and usurping the chamber of another officer. UPSC filed an FIR of fraud against Pooja and issued a notice when it was found that Pooja had repeatedly attempted to change her identity including name beyond the prescribed limit. Now finally she has been dismissed from the post of trainee IAS.
UPSC has taken this decision after a thorough review of the details mentioned in Pooja Khedkar's application and her eligibility. UPSC has said in an official statement that UPSC has verified all the available documents and found her guilty of violating the provisions of CSE-2022 (Civil Services Examination-2022). Her provisional candidature for CSE-2022 has been cancelled and she has been permanently barred from all upcoming examinations/selections of UPSC.
UPSC also said in its statement that Pooja Khedkar was served a show cause notice on July 18, giving her time till July 25 to respond to the fact that she appeared in the exam more times than usual by changing her identity and committed fraud in this way. She requested time till August 4 so that she could gather the necessary documents for her reply. The deadline to respond to the show cause notice was extended to 30 July 3.30 pm. UPSC told her that this is the last chance and it will not be extended further.
UPSC said in a statement that despite being given more time to respond, she did not respond by the due date. Delhi Police Crime Branch has registered a complaint against Pooja Khedkar for misusing disability and OBC (non-creamy layer) reservation. A team of the Crime Branch led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) level officer was assigned the task of collecting documents from various government departments.
A case was registered against Pooja Khedkar under sections 420 (cheating), 464 (forgery), 465 (forgery) and 471 (act of presenting a forged document as genuine) of the IPC and sections 89 and 91 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act and section 66 (D) of the Information Technology Act. Pooja Khedkar had changed her name and that of her parents, so it was not known how many times this candidate had appeared in the exam in excess of the rule, mainly for this reason. UPSC said that Pooja is the only candidate in the last 15 years who has made more attempts than the identity transfer limit in this way.
The commission said in its statement that the data of more than 15,000 candidates selected in the civil service examination during the last 15 years (2009-2023) was examined to get information about how many attempts the candidates made in the examination. After this detailed investigation, it was found that except Pooja Khedkar, no candidate appeared in the examination more than the rule.
UPSC said that to prevent such incidents from happening again, UPSC is strengthening its 'Standard Operating Procedure' (SOP). On the issue of complaints of submission of wrong certificates (OBC and Persons with Benchmark Disability Certificates) UPSC said that only initial verification of certificates is done, if issued by competent authority then UPSC considers the same valid for candidates every year. It does not have the authority or resources to verify thousands of certificates being submitted.
