Jul 12, 2024 05:47 PM IST
The Centre on Thursday formed a single-member committee, chaired by the additional secretary in the Department of Personnel and Training to verify the candidature claims and other details of IAS probationer Puja Khedkar
New Delhi: The central government-appointed committee led by IAS officer Manoj Dwivedi, looking into allegations against trainee IAS officer Puja Khedkar, can recommend her termination and even criminal prosecution under charges of forgery if allegations of her distorting her caste certificate are proven to be true, officials aware of the matter ministry said on Friday.
The official said that the committee will submit its findings in a fortnight. Dwivedi is the additional secretary in the Department of Personnel and Training (DoT) which is the nodal ministry for bureaucrats.
The Centre on Thursday formed a single-member committee, chaired by the additional secretary in the Department of Personnel and Training to verify the candidature claims and other details of IAS probationer Puja Khedkar.
The 32-year-old probationer trainee officer has been accused of securing her position in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) through the Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) quota.
The probe was set up as reports emerged of her owning property worth more than Rs.22 crore, although she declared an annual income of Rs.42 lakh in the financial disclosures submitted to the government before joining the service on January 28, 2023.
There are doubts about the veracity of her disability claim as well, as she failed to appear before the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) despite six summons to verify her claims.
“Every year, there are UPSC candidates who try to use fake certificates to get in. We are able to successfully sift them out. We have to see if these reports are true, how this could have happened,’’ said a senior ministry official, who did not want to be named.
It is unclear if the probe report authored by Dwivedi, a 1997 batch Jammu and Kashmir cadre officer, will be made public. The ministry official said that the veracity of each candidate’s credential was checked by the UPSC and these processes may be reviewed soon too.
On Thursday, Khedkar, 32, assumed her new role as assistant collector at the Washim District Collectorate after she was shunted from Pune over alleged misbehaviour, including aggressive treatment of junior staff, illegal occupation of the ante-chamber of district additional collector and violations pertaining to sporting a red beacon on Audi and flashing it during the day, among others.
