| Puja belongs to a family of bureaucrats and politicians from Pathardi tehsil in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. |
| In 2022, she got a rank in the UPSC exam and became an IAS officer. She was first posted as an Additional Collector in Pune. |
| After she was admitted to the services, she was asked to appear for additional medical exams; however, she skipped her medical exams. |
| On 22 April 2022, she was asked to appear for a medical exam to confirm her disabilities; however, she refused to attend it saying that she was COVID-19 positive. |
| On 26 May 2022 and 27 May 2022, she was again asked to appear for her medical examination at the Safdarjung Hospital but she did not appear for the examination. |
| In September, she was called for an MRI of her eye disability at AIIMS, Delhi but she did not appear for the examinations in spite of many calls from the Duty officer at AIIMS. |
| Later, she submitted her reports claiming that she was in fact disabled from a private hospital. |
| She came into the limelight after she made unreasonable demands and privileges like a separate office, house, car, and staff (including a constable) not given to any officers on probation. |
| Later, several reports claimed that she got her demands fulfilled because of her father’s influence as he is a former IAS officer. |
| There were more allegations claiming she allegedly faked mental illness to secure a disability certificate and appeared for the UPSC exam under the visually impaired category and more complaints came to light saying that she had been using Pune Additional Collector Ajay More’s office while he was away, and had removed his nameplate and furniture. |
| These allegations led to a report being submitted by Pune District Collector Suhas Diwase to the General Administration Department (GAD) which further led to Khedkar being transferred to Washim district to complete the remaining term of her training on the post of “supernumerary assistant collector.” |
| She was also accused of faking her caste certificate and disability to clear the civil services exam. |
| In 2024, an RTI activist Vijay Kumbhar demanded a thorough investigation into Puja Khedkar’s recruitment in the service which revealed that although she claimed to belong to an OBC caste, her family combined owned assets worth more than Rs. 40 crores. |
| The activist also questioned how can she manage to be posted in her hometown district when it has never happened before. |
