Puja Khedkar case: The Delhi High Court is set to deliver its judgement on Monday regarding the anticipatory bail plea of former IAS officer Puja Khedkar, who is facing criminal charges filed by the Delhi Police, accusing her of cheating and unlawfully claiming OBC and disability quota benefits in the civil services examination. The bench of Justice Chander Dhari Singh reserved its order on November 27, 2024. Meanwhile, the court has extended the interim protection granted to Khedkar until the final decision is made.
Khedkar, through Advocate Bina Madhvan, stated that she is willing to cooperate with the investigation and submitted that custodial interrogation is not necessary. The Delhi Police, however, through Special Public Prosecutor Advocate Sanjeev Bhandari, informed the court that the investigation is ongoing, and custodial interrogation may be required to uncover the larger conspiracy, adding that certain aspects of the conspiracy still need to be examined.
This name change was done in order to fraudulently avail more attempts, he added. Earlier, Delhi Police opposed the anticipatory bail plea and informed the Delhi High Court that as the investigation progresses, a larger conspiracy is emerging in the matter. Meanwhile, the UPSC withdrew its perjury applications, stating that it would file a separate independent application. The UPSC alleged that Khedkar attempted to manipulate the judicial system and stated that Puja Khedkar has committed perjury by filing a false affidavit, and the intent behind making such a blatantly false statement naturally appears to be an attempt to obtain favourable orders on the basis of the false statement.
UPSC stated that the "Claim that the Commission collected her biometrics is absolutely false and were made with the sole aim and purpose of deceiving the Court for obtaining favourable orders. The said claim is denied since the Commission did not collect any biometric data (eyes and fingerprints) during her personality test or carry out any attempts at verification on the basis of the same. The Commission has not collected any biometric information from any candidate during the personality test of the Civil Services Examinations held so far."
Recently, Delhi Police registered an FIR on the basis of a complaint filed by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) against Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar. Recently, the Delhi High Court has also issued notice to suspended IAS trainee Puja Khedkar on an application moved by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) claiming that she made an incorrect assertion in her petition that she was not served the order of cancellation of her candidature.
UPSC stated that communication regarding cancelling her candidature was communicated to her on her registered mail ID. So she falsely submitted before the Delhi High Court earlier that the press release dated 31.07.2024 was not officially communicated to her.
