After 8-hour grilling, Puja Khedkar says, 'didn't change name, never used bogus docs'

PUNE: Puja Khedkar, for the first time after the controversy that led to her dismissal as a probationary IAS officer and registration of an FIR against her, on Friday claimed that a lot of misinformation and falsehood about her examination attempts, name changes, and OBC and divyang certificates were presented before the media.
Puja, accompanied by her father, Dilip Khedkar, interacted with reporters before stepping into the Delhi police crime branch office to record her statement as per the Supreme Court's directions. Police sources said she was questioned for eight hours.

"I am always ready to cooperate with the investigating agencies. I submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court in this regard. In fact, I sent an email to the crime branch stating that I wanted to give my statement, and that is why I came to the office," she said.
On the accusations that she changed her name to avail a number of attempts in excess of the maximum attempts allowed for the UPSC examination, Puja said, "Since when has it become a crime to add the name of one's mother in the middle name? Even the Maharashtra chief minister has added his mother's name in his middle name. A lot of misinformation is being circulated. I have not used different names at all. In Maharashtra, the ‘Rao' suffix is often used with the name, and Dilip (Puja's father) and Diliprao are not two different persons. These issues are being deliberately twisted."
Puja got through the competitive exams via the OBC and divyang (physically challenged) quotas, but those certificates are now under investigation. However, she reiterated that she did not submit any bogus documents.
"Whenever any certificate is submitted, UPSC and DoPT (department of personnel and training) do not immediately accept it. They have a 12-member medical board of their own which examined me six times in three years. AIIMS, which is a national institute, gave me a certificate. UPSC also never mentioned anywhere that the certificates submitted by me were bogus. However, some misinformation is being deliberately circulated in the media," she said.
Dilip Khedkar told TOI: "My daughter was never given an opportunity to give an explanation to the accusations before UPSC filed a complaint (based on which an FIR was registered) against her. UPSC should have granted my daughter a personal hearing. It was against the principle of natural justice. Even DoPT's decision to discharge her from the IAS service after the FIR was legally inappropriate."
He said Puja has always shown willingness to cooperate in the investigation. "Despite sending an email to the crime branch, requesting police to call her to record her statement, they never called my daughter for questioning. That prompted the Supreme Court to direct police to record her statement," he said.