New Delhi: On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court ordered that the protection from arrest for the suspended IAS officer Puja Khedkar should remain till 29 August. This extension has come in the wake of a case in which Khedkar was accused of providing a fraudulent identity to attempt the UPSC exam more than once.
This was done after Khedkar’s legal team had sought more time to file a reply to an affidavit that had been filed by the UPSC, and this was granted by a bench headed by Justice Subramonium Prasad. This affidavit is filed in reaction to her anticipatory bail application. Khedkar’s senior advocate, Siddharth Luthra, informed the court that the affidavit had been filed only the previous evening. Hence, a conducive time was required for going through the same and responding to the same.
Another sitting is set for 29th August, when the court will continue hearing the case. Khedkar had gone to the Delhi High Court earlier seeking to set aside a city court’s August 1 order rejecting her anticipatory bail application. The city court had dismissed her bail application because she was required to be taken for custodial interrogation in order for the other members of the conspiracy to be revealed. The court observed that the dishonest practices of Khedkar not only cheated the UPSC but also deprived the candidates with benchmark disabilities of their due chances.
In her grounds for seeking a prerogative of mercy from the High Court, Khedkar states that the allegations against her, as stated in the FIR, are fabrications and incredibility. She says the accusations do not contain adequate evidence to form the alleged offenses.
Earlier on August 12, the High Court allowed Khedkar interim protection from arrest until August 21 in the case and directed the Delhi Police and the UPSC to file a response about the requirements to arrest her for custodial interrogation to expose the alleged conspiracy. Justice Prasad noted that, in its essence, the case mainly involves false representation in the application for UPSC.
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