NEW DELHI: The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and Delhi Police on Wednesday opposed the anticipatory bail plea of former IAS probationer Puja Khedkar, saying she defrauded not just the Commission but also the public as she was ineligible to appear for the civil services examinations (CSE) in 2021, having exhausted all attempts by 2020.
Khedkar, accused of cheating and wrongly availing OBC and disability quota benefits, is on interim bail, which was on Wednesday extended by HC as it listed the matter for hearing on Aug 29.
In their respective replies, both UPSC and Delhi Police sought dismissal of the pre-arrest bail plea on the grounds that any relief to her would hinder the probe into the “deep-rooted conspiracy” and that the case had wider implications on public trust as well as the integrity of the civil services examination.
HC granted time to Khedkar to respond to the stand of UPSC and Delhi Police.
The UPSC contended that Khedkar’s custodial interrogation was necessary to “unearth the magnitude of the fraud” that could not have been done without the help of other individuals.
“The gravity of the fraud is unprecedented in nature, having been committed against not only a constitutional body – the complainant – whose traditions are untrammelled and unparalleled, but also against the public at large, including the citizens of this country who have utmost faith in the credibility of the UPSC, as well as persons who could not be appointed despite being duly eligible and qualified, due to illegal means employed by the applicant to seek appointment,” the commission submitted.
In its status report, police maintained that Khedkar was not entitled to reservation benefits as an OBC non-creamy layer candidate, misrepresented her parents as divorced, and made a false declaration with respect to her previous number of attempts while writing CSE-2021 under a changed name.
Police said she appeared in the UPSC exams around a dozen times with different names and forged documents, misused the ‘benchmark disability system’ and even ran away from AIIMS during her medical tests regarding her ‘disability’.
“She had already exhausted all the permissible attempts available to a PwBD (persons with benchmark disabilities) + OBC candidate, i.e. 9 attempts, by CSE-2020 itself. Therefore, as per CSE Rules, she was not eligible to appear further for CSE-2021 and subsequent CSEs,” police said in its status report.
The report said while Khedkar claimed no connection with her father and showed her mother’s income to be below the threshold to get the benefit of OBC non-creamy layer, her family owned 12 vehicles, including a Mercedes car, a BMW car and a Thar SUV, and “23 pieces of immovable properties valued crores of rupees” at different locations in Maharashtra.
If granted anticipatory bail, Khedkar might obstruct the ongoing probe and verification of her qualifications, and those involved might “cover up their tracks” and manipulate evidence, police argued.