Trainee IAS officer Puja Khedkar, under intense scrutiny for allegedly manipulating her documents to appear for the UPSC examinations multiple times, as well as misusing her power as a bureaucrat to obtain a disability certificate and non-creamy layer quota fraudulently, failed to report to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) in Mussoorie on Tuesday.
The 34-year-old IAS officer was summoned by LBSNAA, the apex body for training civil services officers, to report back to the academy by July 23 following serious allegations against her. Despite this, she failed to appear before the academy and is reportedly untraceable, as cited by media reports. She was previously summoned by the Pune city police to appear on July 20 to record her statement regarding a harassment complaint filed against Pune district collector Suhas Diwase, but she did not show up there too.
Meanwhile, it is pertinent to note that the Centre has directed the Pune police to apprise it of the marital status of Puja Khedkar's parents. This directive comes after the UPSC filed an FIR and issued a show cause notice regarding her disqualification and debarment from future exams, citing that she fraudulently availed the OBC non-creamy layer benefit by claiming her parents were separated.
A senior official of the Pune police confirmed to news agency PTI that the central government has asked them to verify whether Puja Khedkar's parents, Manorama and Dilip, were divorced. "We have been asked to find out and inform the central government about whether Puja Khedkar's parents were divorced. In essence, they have asked us to verify the actual status of their marriage/divorce," the official said.
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