The Supreme Court on Friday extended its interim order granting protection from arrest to former probationary Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Puja Khedkar, who is accused of fraudulently availing additional attempts in the civil services examination. The extension was granted after the Delhi Police sought more time to respond to her anticipatory bail plea.
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A bench comprising Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice S.C. Sharma directed Ms. Khedkar to cooperate with the investigation and scheduled the next hearing for March 18.
Mr. S.V. Raju, Additional Solicitor General appearing for the Delhi Police, informed the court that they required more time to file their response. He emphasized the seriousness of the allegations and cautioned that Ms. Khedkar should not misuse the court’s order to claim anticipatory bail on the grounds of cooperation.
On January 15, the court had ordered that no coercive steps be taken against Ms. Khedkar, but this protection ended on Friday. Mr. Siddharth Luthra, Senior Advocate representing Ms. Khedkar, sought an extension of the previous order, arguing that the police had not yet called her for questioning, despite her willingness to cooperate.
Ms. Khedkar is accused of withholding information from the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), which subsequently canceled her candidature on July 31, 2023. The Delhi High Court, in December 2024, denied her pre-arrest bail, citing a larger conspiracy behind her alleged attempt to deceive UPSC. In response, Ms. Khedkar contended that she was an unmarried woman whose career was at stake after losing her job.
The High Court described her case as a “classic example” of fraud against a constitutional body and society, emphasizing that her custodial interrogation was necessary to uncover the larger conspiracy and identify all those involved. The court also raised concerns about “unknown powerful persons” potentially helping her obtain fraudulent certificates.
In her petition, Ms. Khedkar argued that the charges of cheating and fraud were based on documentary evidence already in police possession, making custodial interrogation unnecessary. She claimed to have a benchmark disability, verified upon her entry into the All India Services, and asserted that she had no criminal record.
Investigations indicate that Ms. Khedkar had already exhausted all nine permissible attempts available to Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) and Other Backward Class (OBC) candidates by the 2020 civil services exam. However, she allegedly changed her name in 2021 and took the exams in 2021, 2022, and 2023, misrepresenting the number of attempts she had availed.
Earlier, a local court had also denied her anticipatory bail.
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