India
IAS probationer Puja Khedkar faces dismissal, criminal charges if disability, caste claims are false | India News – Times of India
NEW DELHI: Puja Khedkar, a probationary IAS officer, is in the eye of a storm over the authenticity of her incompetence And OBC status allegations that earned her a civil service appointment could have terminated her employment and even criminal charges by fake if the one-man panel set up by the Centre to investigate the matter finds that she has misrepresented or concealed facts.
“The panel will submit its findings to DoPT, which will then forward the report with recommendations to the Maharashtra government as she has been assigned to the Maharashtra cadre. If she is found guilty of forging her OBC and disability papers, the state government can dismiss her. She can also be made criminally liable for forgery and misrepresentation,” a source said.
The DoPT panel probing Khedkar’s claims is likely to seek the help of the social justice ministry to verify her OBC status. Though she claims to belong to the economically weaker category, the affidavit filed by her father, a former civil servant and candidate in the recent Lok Sabha elections, indicated that his assets were over Rs 40 crore. Khedkar was shown as the owner of flats and plots worth crores.
A senior government official said this was not the first case of a civil servant aspiring to file false disability claims for selection in the PwBD category. “There are cases almost every year where those selected on the basis of false disability claims have evaded the mandatory medical test at AIIMS Delhi and even referred the matter to the Central Administrative Tribunal seeking a test elsewhere. However, they could not get an appointment after failing the test,” the official said. TOI.
Government sources said that the panel headed by Manoj Dwivedi, Additional Secretary, DoPT, will conduct an inquiry over the next two weeks into how she obtained the documents proving her disability and OBC status and whether the issuing authority properly screened the documents.
Khedkar allegedly repeatedly failed to appear for mandatory medical tests at AIIMS Delhi to confirm her disability despite being eligible for IAS in the category ‘Persons with a characteristic disability (PwBD)’.“The panel will submit its findings to DoPT, which will then forward the report with recommendations to the Maharashtra government as she has been assigned to the Maharashtra cadre. If she is found guilty of forging her OBC and disability papers, the state government can dismiss her. She can also be made criminally liable for forgery and misrepresentation,” a source said.
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The DoPT panel probing Khedkar’s claims is likely to seek the help of the social justice ministry to verify her OBC status. Though she claims to belong to the economically weaker category, the affidavit filed by her father, a former civil servant and candidate in the recent Lok Sabha elections, indicated that his assets were over Rs 40 crore. Khedkar was shown as the owner of flats and plots worth crores.
The panel, in consultation with experts from AIIMS Delhi, will also examine whether the visual and mental disability she claims meets the criteria for a government job.
A senior government official said this was not the first case of a civil servant aspiring to file false disability claims for selection in the PwBD category. “There are cases almost every year where those selected on the basis of false disability claims have evaded the mandatory medical test at AIIMS Delhi and even referred the matter to the Central Administrative Tribunal seeking a test elsewhere. However, they could not get an appointment after failing the test,” the official said. TOI.
