IAS probationer Puja Khedkar, who is being investigated for allegedly using fraudulent means to clear her UPSC exam, obtained a disability certificate from a Pimpri hospital under a fake address, which was also used to register her luxury Audi car that was confiscated by the Pune police for having a red beacon light on it.
According to officials, Khedkar obtained a partial “locomotor disability” certificate from Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital in Pimpri in Pune district in August 2022. But, she got this certificate under a fake address and attached a “ration card” as address proof instead of mandatory Aadhaar card details, sources told News18. They added that the address on this certificate is of ‘Thermoverta Engineering Company’, under which her luxury Audi car was also registered.
The controversial junior officer allegedly misrepresented herself under the physical disabilities and OBC categories, and has been accused of misusing power and privileges during her posting in Pune. The new details about her medical certificates emerged as the state disability commissioner wrote to the Pune police and the district collectorate to investigate the disability claims made by the controversial junior IAS officer.
The Office of the Commissioner For Persons With Disabilities has an IAS-level officer under the social justice and special assistance department of the Maharashtra government. In the letter, the disability commissioner asked the police to register a case if the medical certificates pertaining to these claims were found to be bogus.
Pune police will conduct an inquiry into the authenticity of the medical certificates submitted by her, officials said. “We have received a letter from the Office of the Commissioner For Persons With Disabilities. They have asked us to check the authenticity of certificates submitted by Puja Khedkar. We will verify the facts about these certificates, from where they were obtained, which doctor or hospitals certified them will also be scanned,” a senior police official said.
A doctor at the YCM hospital in Pimpri said the disability certificate, issued on August 24, 2022, stated that Khedkar had 7 per cent disability in the knee. “She applied for disability certification about her left limb knee joint back in 2022. She visited here for medical examinations and was assessed by multiple departments,” said Dr Rajendra Wable, dean of the government-run Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital at Pimpri.
He added: “It was found that she has a 7 per cent locomotor disability.”
Khedkar had earlier submitted two certificates, provided by the Ahmednagar District Civil Hospital in 2018 and 2021, to the UPSC under the Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) category. Additionally, she had applied for a disability certificate from the Aundh government hospital in Pune in August 2022, but after medical tests her application was rejected.
She had submitted to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) multiple medical certificates — one of them indicating visual impairment, under the PwBD provision. It has also emerged that she had submitted a fitness certificate while securing admission to a private medical college in 2007.
While Khedkar has called the accusations a “misinformation campaign against her”, last week the Centre set up a single-member committee to verify her candidature and submit a report in two weeks. The government said the probe will be conducted by an additional secretary-rank officer to verify the candidature claims and other details of the IAS officer.
The Pune police are also looking for her parents in a separate criminal case, after an FIR was registered against the couple and five others as a video emerged showing Puja’s mother Manorama Khedkar, a village sarpanch, allegedly threatening some persons with a gun over a land dispute.
(With PTI inputs)
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