Former IAS trainee Puja Khedkar's anticipatory bail plea dismissed by Delhi court

Delhi's Patiala House Court has dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of Puja Khedkar, a trainee IAS officer. She is accused of using fraudulent means to pass the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination. On Wednesday, UPSC cancelled her provisional candidature and debarred her from all future examinations or selections. The commission has registered a police case against Khedkar for allegedly fraudulently availing attempts in the civil services examination by faking her identity to take the exam beyond the permissible attempts.

"The UPSC has examined the available records carefully and found her guilty of acting in contravention of the provisions of the CSE-2022 Rules," the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) said in a statement. The commission said it was the "lone case" of Khedkar in the last 15 years where it could not detect that a candidate has exceeded the number of attempts permitted to a candidate for writing the CSE exam "primarily due to the fact that she changed not only her name but also her parents' name".

The commission said a show-cause notice was issued to Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar on July 18 for "fraudulently" availing attempts beyond the permissible limit in the examination by "faking" her identity.
She was asked to submit her response to the notice by July 25 but she requested time till August 4 to gather the necessary documents for her response, it said.

The UPSC granted her a "final opportunity" to submit her response by 3:30 pm on July 30 but she "failed to submit her explanation within the prescribed time", the commission said.

(With inputs from PTI)

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