The Supreme Court has given relief to former IAS trainee Pooja Khedkar and stayed her arrest in the UPSC fraud case. A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma issued notice to the Delhi government and the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Khedkar’s anticipatory bail plea. Khedkar had challenged in the Supreme Court the order of the Delhi High Court in which his anticipatory bail plea was rejected. The next hearing on this matter in the Supreme Court will be on February 14.
As per the directions of the Supreme Court, Pooja Khedkar will not be arrested till the next hearing. Khedkar has argued in the court that the documents and application forms mentioned in the FIR lodged against him are already with the prosecution, hence there is no need to interrogate him by custodial interrogation. She also said that she has no criminal record and is an unmarried disabled woman.
Pooja Khedkar is accused of giving wrong information to avail the benefit of reservation in UPSC Civil Services Examination. He is accused of fraudulently passing the examination by using the quota reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBC) and the disabled. However, Khedkar has denied all the allegations against him.
He had filed an anticipatory bail petition in the Delhi High Court to avoid arrest. On August 12, 2024, the High Court had given him interim protection, but it was canceled on December 23, after which he approached the Supreme Court.
Following the allegations against Pooja Khedkar, UPSC canceled her selection and permanently banned her from all future examinations and selection processes. After this Delhi Police had registered a case against him.
