IAS officer Puja Khedkar summoned back to Mussoorie academy, training put on hold

PTI, Jul 16, 2024, 7:30 PM IST

Mumbai: The government on Tuesday put on hold the `district training program’ of controversial IAS officer Puja Khedkar as she was summoned back to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration for “necessary action”.

While Khedkar, whose disability as well as OBC certificates are under the scanner, maintained that she was a victim of misinformation and “fake news”, Pune Police said they would check the authenticity of the disability certificates she had submitted to the UPSC.

A letter by Maharashtra additional chief secretary Nitin Gadre said the Mussoorie-based Lal Bahadur Shastri academy had decided to put her district training programme on hold, and immediately recalled her.

“You are hereby relieved from the district training programme of the state government of Maharashtra. You are instructed to join the academy at the earliest but not later than 23rd July 2024 under any circumstance,” the letter addressed to Khedkar said.

When contacted, Washim collector Bhuvaneshwari S said Khedkar was immediately relieved as `supernumerary’ assistant collector.

Khedkar, 34, came under the spotlight after reports about her alleged demands for a separate office and official car and unauthorised use of a beacon on her private car emerged. She was subsequently transferred to Washim from Pune.

Earlier in the day, a senior government doctor said she had obtained a “locomotor disability” certificate in August 2022.

“She applied for disability certification about her left limb knee joint back in 2022. She visited here for medical examinations and was assessed by multiple departments,” said Dr Rajendra Wable, dean of the government-run Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital at Pimpri near Pune.

“It was found that she has a seven per cent locomotor disability,” he added.

The certificate, issued on August 24, 2022, stated that she had seven per cent disability in the knee.

Khedkar had earlier submitted two certificates, provided by the Ahmednagar District Civil Hospital in 2018 and 2021, to the UPSC under the Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) category. Additionally, she had applied for a disability certificate from the Aundh government hospital in Pune in August 2022, but after medical tests her application was rejected.

Speaking to reporters in Washim, Khedkar said she had been the victim of a misinformation campaign.

Fake news was being published about her every day, she said.

“Misinformation is being spread and I am facing a lot of defamation. I want to request the media to behave responsibly and not to spread misinformation,” she said.

She had called women police personnel to her residence on Monday night as “she had some work,” the official said while responding to a question, without elaborating further.

Khedkar was transferred from Pune, where she was posted as assistant collector, to Washim as a supernumerary assistant collector after she was first accused of demanding perks and facilities to which she was not entitled as a trainee official.

A police official in Pune, meanwhile, said they had received a letter from the office of the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities.

“They have asked us to check the authenticity of certificates submitted by Puja Khedkar. We will verify the facts about these certificates, from where they were obtained, which doctor or hospitals certified them, and other things,” he said.

Last week, the Union government set up a one-member committee “to verify the candidature” of Khedkar and submit a report in two weeks.

Pune Police has also been searching for her parents in a criminal case. A First Information Report was registered against the couple and five others after a video showed Puja’s mother Manorama Khedkar, a village sarpanch, allegedly threatening some persons with a gun over a land dispute.

The Pune police on Sunday also confiscated a luxury car used by Puja Khedkar for allegedly installing a red beacon light on it without any authorisation.