BREAKING: Trouble Mounts for Puja Khedkar as Delhi Court Denies Her Anticipatory Bail

New Delhi: A day after the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) cancelled the provisional candidature of probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar and debarred her from all future examinations or selections, a Delhi Court has denied her anticipatory bail. Khedkar is accused of misrepresenting and falsifying facts in her Civil Services Examination application. The court accused her of cheating and wrongly availing of OBC and disability quota benefits, saying these are serious allegations that "require a thorough investigation".

Khedkar, who has not been arrested in the case, had approached the court through her lawyer, saying she faces "immediate threat of arrest".

"Custodial interrogation of the accused is required to unearth the whole conspiracy and to establish involvement of the other persons involved in conspiracy," Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala said. 

Hearing the plea, the judge said the case is "only the tip of the iceberg", and asked the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to have a relook at its recommendations made in the recent past and the Delhi Police to widen its scope of investigation.

He said the UPSC is required to find out candidates who might have illegally availed of attempts beyond permissible limits, obtained benefits of OBC (non-creamy layer) and Persons with Benchmark Disability quota despite being not entitled.

The judge directed the Delhi Police to conduct its investigation "in all fairness" to find out candidates recommended in recent past who might have illegally availed of such benefits. The judge further directed the police to find out whether some insider from the UPSC also helped Khedkar.

In order to maintain its reputation, fairness, sanctity and the faith of aspirants and the general public, there is need on the part of the UPSC to strengthen its SOP (standard operating procedure) to ensure that such an event does not occur in future, the judge said.

The judge made the observation while noting that the officers appointed by the UPSC are the backbone of the country and "the faith of the society at large shall be lost if a thorough investigation to find out the truth is not conducted".

"The applicant has been able to breach the wall of the UPSC not only once but repeatedly with deceitful means. The faith of the society at large shall be lost if a thorough investigation to find out the truth is not conducted. The accused has not only cheated and defrauded the UPSC but the lawful rights of eligible aspirant with benchmark disability aspirants have been snatched by the accused," the judge said.

The judge said the UPSC was required to maintain the highest degree of transparency and fairness in its standard operating procedure.

"It is an admitted case of the complainant also that its SOP has been breached by the accused, therefore, the complainant should introspect because its scrutiny system has failed to curb the breach'. The present case may be only the tip of the iceberg because if the applicant/accused can breach the scrutiny system of the complainant, why not others," the judge said.

While denying anticipatory bail to Khedkar, the judge said the documents placed on record by her itself showed her "guilty mind" and the presence of mens rea (criminal intent).

In response to Khedkar's claim she was falsely implicated in the case and was a victim of media trial and witch-hunt, the judge said the argument was not tenable because there were sufficient incriminating material on record. "Therefore, reporting of the incriminating material which is on record could not be considered as 'media trial' or 'witch hunt," the judge said.

The judge said prima facie the entire conspiracy was going on for last many years in a pre-planned manner, therefore, the custodial interrogation is required to unearth the conspiracy and find out the persons who were involved in this conspiracy.

"The accused has cheated the complainant by mis-representation," the judge said.

He said the accused in order to attain the mis-representation has got prepared various documents to support her claim. "The conspiracy has been hatched in a pre-planned manner. The conspiracy was executed by the accused in many years. The accused alone could not have executed the conspiracy without the assistance of some outsider or insider," the judge said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Khedkar told the court that she was being targeted for filing a sexual harassment complaint against an officer. 

"I (Khedkar) filed a complaint for sexual harassment and that is why all this is being done against me. This is all happening on behest of the collector against whom I have levelled sexual harassment complaint. The person asked me to come and sit in a private room. I said I am a qualified IAS and I will not do that. I am pressing for anticipatory bail to establish my innocence," advocate Bina Mahadevan, appearing for Khedkar, told the court.

Mahadevan told the court that Khedkar didn't suppress any information, and that she has wrongly mentioned the number of attempt.

"I wrote five but I should have said 12. It is because I availed those attempts under a different quota. Whether it was done in good faith or not is to be inquired," she said.

The advocate further said that Khedkar has been called by multiple authorities.

"IAS Academy Mussoorie has called me (Khedkar), Pune Commissioner has called me. DoPT has given me a notice as well. I need anticipatory bail to defend myself before all these forums," the counsel said.

She added that since this case, media is indulged in witch hunt against Khedkar, but the IAS trainee has not gone to media once, "because I have full faith in the justice system".

UPSC filed case against Khedkar

On Wednesday, the UPSC cancelled Khedkar's candidature and debarred her from future exams. She was accused of 'misrepresenting information' in her application for the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Services Examination, 2022.

The UPSC has also filed a case against Khedkar for allegedly fraudulently availing the benefits of quota by faking her identity to take the civil services examination beyond the permissible number of attempts.

Senior Advocate Naresh Kaushik, appearing for the UPSC, said, "She secured a public employment unlawfully. It would not only be an offence against the UPSC but the entire society."

"She has cheated the examination process. If UPSC had the means to prosecute, it would have prosecuted. The offence has been committed with deep intelligence. The investigation is necessary to unearth the methods used by her because other persons can also use similar methods," he said.