Court relief to Puja Khedkar in fake identity case  

The Delhi High Court on Monday granted interim protection from arrest until August 21 to former IAS trainee Puja Khedkar, whose candidacy was recently cancelled by the UPSC over allegations of cheating and wrongly benefiting from OBC and disability quotas.

Justice Subramonium Prasad issued the order while hearing a plea by Puja Khedkar seeking anticipatory bail. He questioned the Delhi Police's requirement for Khedkar's immediate custody, noting that she appears to have acted alone in the alleged offences.

“As of now it doesn’t seem to me at the moment that her immediate custody is required,” Justice Prasad said.

The court ordered Khedkar to cooperate with the ongoing investigation. Making UPSC a party to the case, it also issued notices to the commission and Delhi Police seeking their response on her interim bail application.

Khedkar, a 2023-batch IAS officer, was accused of fraudulently availing attempts beyond the permissible limit by faking her identity, including changing her name, her father's and mother's names, her photograph, signature, email ID, mobile number and address.