Puja Khedkar, the Maharashtra probationary IAS officer who was transferred over alleged misuse of power, requested a separate office, a car, and a house for herself, as revealed by details of her WhatsApp chat with the Pune District Collector. These demands were made prior to her assuming the role of Assistant Collector in Pune. The District Collector brought these unusual demands to the attention of the Chief Secretary. In his report, he recommended that it would not be suitable for Khedkar to continue her training in Pune and noted that it could result in administrative complications.
The officer was presented with her own chamber, but she refused it because it did not have an attached bathroom, as mentioned in the Collector’s report. Prior to her appointment, Khedkar, accompanied by her father Dilip Khedkar, inspected the office and suggested using a VIP hall near the mining department as her workspace.
Following the report from the District Collector, Khedkar, the IAS officer from the 2023 batch, has been reassigned to Washim district to finish her training. She will be working there as a ‘supernumerary Assistant Collector’ until July 30, 2025.
Upon further investigation, discrepancies emerged in her application documents for the civil services exam. It was discovered that she had allegedly provided false disability and Other Backward Class (OBC) certificates in order to qualify for the examination.
Khedkar took the civil services test as a visually impaired candidate under the OBC category. She also presented a certificate for mental illness. In April 2022, she was requested to undergo medical evaluations at AIIMS to confirm her disabilities. Nevertheless, Khedkar declined to participate in these assessments on six separate occasions, as per an official statement.
Subsequently, a scanning certificate from a private facility that she submitted was used to validate her IAS appointment.
Moreover, inconsistencies were identified in Khedkar’s claims regarding her OBC non-creamy layer status. Her father, Dilip Khedkar, who ran for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on a Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi ticket, declared assets worth Rs 40 crore in his election affidavit. This discrepancy raised doubts about her OBC eligibility.