Audi seized: Pune police crack down on IAS trainee Puja Khedkar’s luxury ride.

Puja Khedkar recently courted controversy for allegedly misusing benefits from the OBC and PwBD quota to secure a position in civil services. Pune police on Sunday confiscated a private luxury car used by controversial trainee IAS officer Puja Khedkar, who is facing scrutiny over alleged misuse of her Other Backward Class (OBC) and Person with Benchmark Disabilities (PwD) certificates. The Audi car was brought to Chaturshrangi Police Station days after the Pune Regional Transport Office (RTO) issued a notice to a city-based private company, which is the registered owner of the luxury car that Khedkar used during her posting. The car is kept at the traffic division of the Chaturshrangi Police Station, with a jammer put on the car and barricades installed around it. The 34-year-old probationary IAS officer allegedly used a red beacon light on the Audi car and also got ‘Maharashtra Government’ written on it without permission. “A notice was issued on Thursday against the unauthorised use of a beacon and name sign on the private sedan Khedkar had been using. The car now has been confiscated, its documents will be checked and we are probing the matter further,” a senior police official said on Sunday. Only top officials above the secretary level in the state government, police officers of and above the rank of inspector general of police and regional commissioners are allowed to use amber beacons without flashers, while top-level district officials are entitled to use blue beacons. Khedkar came under the spotlight after kicking up a controversy surrounding her demands for facilities not available to probationary officers in the IAS. The controversy intensified after allegations of submitting fake disability and OBC certificates to clear the civil services exam surfaced. The central government has constituted a single-member committee to verify Khedkar’s candidature claims and other details regarding the alleged misuse of power as a civil servant. The ministry of personnel announced in a statement that the committee is chaired by a senior officer of the rank of Additional Secretary under the Central Government and that it will submit its report in two weeks.