The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has started action against controversial probationary IAS officer Pooja Khedkar. UPSC has registered an FIR against Khedkar for appearing in the civil services examination using fake identity.

UPSC has started action against Pooja Khedkar including a criminal case by registering an FIR with the police. Along with this, UPSC has issued a show cause notice to Pooja Khedkar to cancel her candidature and debar her from future examinations / selections.

Pooja Khedkar accused during training in Pune

IAS 2023 batch officer Pooja Khedkar was recently accused of misusing privileges and using fake certificates for selection in the civil services during her training in Pune.

UPSC official statement

The commission said in an official statement, “UPSC has conducted a detailed and in-depth investigation in respect of Pooja Manorama Dilip Khedkar, a candidate selected for the Civil Services Examination-2022.” It said that the investigation revealed that Khedkar concealed her identity by changing her name, her parents’ name, her photo/signature, her email ID, mobile number and address and took advantage of more attempts than the limit prescribed under the examination rules.

UPSC said – we cannot make any compromise

The institution said that after this investigation, we have lodged an FIR against Pooja Khedkar. Apart from this, a notice has been issued as to why your selection after the 2022 examination should not be canceled. Apart from this, you should also be barred from appearing in future examinations. UPSC said that we are a constitutional institution and it is our responsibility to follow or get the rules followed. We have made it clear that there should be no rigging in the exam and if someone is doing any wrongdoing then action should be taken against him. UPSC said that we have earned trust. Especially the candidates trust us. We are committed to maintaining the trust of the people and there will be no compromise on it.

Mother in police custody

Police action was taken against Puja Khedkar’s mother Manorama Khedkar. On Thursday, her mother was arrested in a land dispute. After this, she was produced in the court from where she was sent to police custody till July 20. Section of attempt to murder (Section 307) has been added to the FIR registered against Puja Khedkar.

Why is there a threat of dismissal?

After the strictness of UPSC, the threat of dismissal from the post of IAS has started looming over Puja Khedkar. Actually, the notice issued by UPSC to Puja. In it, the question has been asked that why should your UPSC candidature not be cancelled. This question has many meanings. If Pooja fails to give a satisfactory answer, her candidature may be cancelled and cancellation of candidature from UPSC means dismissal from the post of IAS. In such a situation, it is now being speculated that UPSC may also dismiss Pooja Khedkar from the post of IAS, although it would be too early to say anything on this right now.