The police custody of ex-Delhi law minister Jitender Singh Tomar was extended by two days on Saturday by a court in New Delhi after the police claimed that documents produced by him were "fabricated" and charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act might also be invoked in the case.
Forty-nine-year-old Tomar, who was arrested in the case on June 9, was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Pooja Aggarwal on expiry of his four-day police remand and the investigators sought extension of his remand by 11 days saying the earlier time period was "not sufficient".
The police also said that Tomar was required for further custodial interrogation to know about the persons who had allegedly connived with him in procurement of purported fake educational certificates.
"Every document produced by him (Tomar) is fabricated and it needs to be probed who are the people in connivance with Tomar in procuring these documents," police told the court, adding, "prima facie" charge under the Prevention of Corruption Act was likely to come into effect in the case.
It alleged that records of Tilka Manjhi University, Bhagalpur, Bihar, were "torn which showed connivance of university officials with Tomar" and it might attract charges under the anti-graft law. It said that lots of documents were required to be probed and the four-day remand granted earlier was not sufficient as almost 45 hours were spent in travelling more than 3,000 km.
Giving details of the probe carried out by it, the police said, "Tomar's migration certificate issued from Bundelkhand University was also fabricated and we need to go there and probe this angle."
Opposing the police's plea, advocate Rajiv Khosla, who appeared for Tomar, said that the police had already been to all the places and seized all the documents. Khosla said Tomar was not well and the only purpose for extension of remand was to "harass him as the police were totally biased and acting on someone's will".
Tomar, who was present in the court room, told the court that he was being harassed by the police and all documents have already been recovered so there was no need for extension of the police remand. He also said that his counsel was not allowed to be with him during the four-day custody. "All the registers and documents were seized and signed but I was not allowed to see them," Tomar alleged.
During the hearing, the police told the court that a Right to Information reply of Tilka Manjhi University, which Tomar had given to the court earlier during hearing on his bail plea, was also forged and even a fabricated government seal was used in it. It also submitted a letter written by the vice-chancellor of the university in the court and requested the magistrate to go through it.
The police did not divulge the details of the letter in the open court room but said that the vice-chancellor has denied that any such RTI reply was provided by the varsity.
Opposing the police's plea, Tomar's counsel said that the police were not acting in a "fair manner" and the investigation should be transferred from the Delhi police to any other probe agency. He also alleged that documents of Bundelkhand University were "fabricated by the police itself". "Tilka Manjhi University, Bhagalpur, is hand in glove with the police in this case," the counsel said.
The police had earlier told the court that after finishing the alleged BSc degree course from Avadh University, Tomar took admission in Tilka Manjhi University, Bhagalpur, for his LLB. It had said that the provisional certificate of his alleged BSc degree was signed by one Rajendra Prasad and when the investigator met Prasad, he denied having signed any such certificate.
The police had also claimed that the registration number of Tomar's LLB first year did not match with the university records and they have questioned the controller of exams of the varsity who has said that Tomar's migration certificate was also fake.
Tomar, MLA from Trinagar, was arrested in the morning of June 9 following an investigation into the complaint by the bar council of Delhi that he had obtained a fake law degree from the Bihar college.
A first information report was registered against Tomar on June 8 at Hauz Khas police station and he was booked for alleged offences of cheating, forgery, using forged documents as genuine, forgery with intent to cheat and criminal conspiracy.
Image: Ex-Delhi law minister Jitender Singh Tomar
