Amid the heat of allegations and media glare, trainee IAS officer Puja Khedkar has reacted to the controversy surrounding her for the first time. While earlier Khedkar has said that she is not authorized to speak on the issue, she changed her stance breaking her silence and said that proving her guilty by media trial is not fair. “I will testify in front of the expert committee and we will accept the decision of the committee. Here, as a probationer, I am supposed to work and learn here and that’s I am doing,” she said.
Reacting to the question of rejection of her disability certificate request by a Pune hospital, Khedkar said that the Government has set up an expert committee and that will look into the technical matters. “I do not have the right to tell you whatever investigation is going on. Whatever submission I have, will become public later. Our Indian Constitution is based on the fact ‘Innocent until proven guilty’ so proving me guilty by media trial is wrong,” she said.
#WATCH | Maharashtra: Trainee IAS officer Puja Khedkar says “I will testify in front of the expert committee and we will accept the decision of the committee…I do not have the right to tell you whatever investigation is going on. Whatever submission I have, will become public… pic.twitter.com/vsGISCyRho
— ANI (@ANI) July 15, 2024
Concerns regarding Khedkar’s appointment in the civil services emerged after Vijay Kumbhar, an RTI activist from Pune, claimed that she did not qualify for the OBC non-creamy layer category due to her father’s assets being valued at Rs 40 crore. The upper annual income limit for the OBC Non-Creamy Layer is Rs 8 lakh.
She is also under investigation for allegedly abusing her authority and submitting fraudulent disability and caste certificates to qualify for the civil service exam.
The collector of Pune, where 2023-batch IAS officer Khedkar served as an assistant collector, lodged a complaint with the Chief Secretary of the Maharashtra government. It was alleged that she used a red beacon and a “Government of Maharashtra” sticker on her private Audi car. Additionally, she reportedly utilized Pune Additional Collector Ajay More’s office during his absence.
Her father, Dilip Khedkar who is a former Maharashtra government employee, defended her over the alleged OBC certificate row and use of the Audi vehicle with red beacon. He claimed that Puja Khedkar belongs to the non-creamy layer as the classification of the creamy-layer depends on income rather than (property) valuation. He also said that the trainee IAS used the luxury car for official work because no government vehicle was available. “She did that with proper permission from her seniors in the administration,” he said.