Puja Khedkar eligible for non-creamy layer OBC, disability certificates, says father

Mumbai: The father of IAS officer Puja Khedkar, accused of using fake disability and OBC certificates to clear the civil services exam, defended her on Sunday, stressing that she hadn’t done anything illegal.

Puja recently came under intense media glare after she kicked up a controversy with her alleged demands for a separate cabin and staff during her posting in Pune and her abrupt transfer to Washim district.

She then faced more allegations of securing a position in the IAS by taking the civil services exam under the Other Backward Class (OBC) – with less than Rs 8 lakh annual income – and visually impaired categories and submitting a mental illness certificate.

Her father and former Maharashtra government employee Dilip Khedkar, who contested the Lok Sabha elections and had declared property worth Rs 40 crore in his poll affidavit, told a Marathi news channel on Sunday that she indeed belongs to the non-creamy layer.

Even if a person with limited means owns 4-5 acres of land, the valuation might show that he is worth several crores, he said. “However, the classification as creamy-layer depends on income rather than (property) valuation,” Dilip said.

About the 34-year-old officer’s alleged misuse of power, including the use of a private luxury car with a VIP number plate and red-blue beacon, during her tenure at the Pune collector’s office, Dilip said she had taken permission for everything.

“She 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. The car belongs to her relative. She did not cheat anyone by putting a beacon on it,” Dilip said.

The police on Sunday confiscated the luxury car of Audi make.

Among the allegations against Puja is that she removed the nameplate of a senior official at the Pune collector’s office when he allowed her to use his ante-chamber as her office.

“She used the cabin with the proper permission from her senior. Is it anywhere written that a young intern woman IAS should not be given a separate cabin? If it is written, then I will make her resign from her job,” Dilip said.

About the allegations of misuse of disability certificates, Dilip said the government establishes a benchmark to determine a person's disability, and his daughter meets the criteria.

“Many disabilities are not visible but are identified through medical tests. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she missed some check-ups,” he said.

In April 2022, Puja was asked to report at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi for verification of her disability certificate but she did not do so, citing COVID infection, an official had said earlier.

The Centre has constituted a single-member committee for re-examining documents submitted by Puja to secure her candidature in the civil services examination and then for IAS selection.

The 2023 batch IAS officer is under probation and currently posted in her home cadre Maharashtra.

Dilip also defended Puja’s mother Manorama who was seen in an old video allegedly threatening some persons with a gun over a land dispute. Police have registered a case against Dilip and Manorama over the matter.

“The media and others are showing only one video clip. The day before that incident, a local aggressively approached her with a stick. In such a situation, should she have stayed silent? She possesses a licence to carry the gun for self-defence,” Dilip said.