“Changed Her & Parents’ Name”: How Former IAS Trainee Officer Puja Khedkar Duped UPSC

Puja Khedkar, a former IAS trainee officer, has been exposed for fraudulently passing the Civil Services entrance exam multiple times beyond the permissible limit for general category candidates. Khedkar achieved this by changing her name and the names of her parents, which allowed her to bypass detection by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). Her case came under scrutiny after allegations surfaced that she had faked visual and mental disabilities to qualify for the exam.

The UPSC, responsible for overseeing the exam, admitted that it had only conducted a preliminary scrutiny of Khedkar’s certificates during the application process. This involved verifying if the certificates were issued by a competent authority but did not extend to reviewing the validity of the claims made. The UPSC noted that due to the large volume of certificates submitted annually, it generally accepts the certificates as genuine without further investigation.

Upon discovering the fraud, the UPSC revoked Khedkar’s selection as a junior government officer and banned her from taking any future UPSC exams. The Commission issued a notice to Khedkar, providing her until 3:30 PM on Tuesday to respond. Despite this extension, she failed to provide an explanation, leading to the cancellation of her provisional candidature.

The UPSC’s review of records from 15,000 other candidates between 2009 and 2023 found no similar violations. Khedkar, who had been posted to Pune as an Assistant Collector and later transferred to Washim district before being recalled to a training institute in Uttarakhand, had previously received perks such as a siren for her luxury vehicle and a government sticker, which drew further scrutiny.

Additionally, Khedkar’s claims to an OBC ‘non-creamy layer’ status were invalidated when it was revealed that her father, Dilip Khedkar, a former Maharashtra government officer, owned property worth ₹40 crore. Khedkar’s disability claim, which alleged an “old ACL tear with left knee instability,” was also questioned. In response to the allegations, Khedkar had accused Pune Collector Suhas Divase of harassment, but Divase has denied these charges.