Delhi Law Minister Faked Law Degree? Demands for Jitender Singh Tomar’s Sacking

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Apr 28, 2015:  Jitender Singh Tomar, the law minister in Delhi’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, is in trouble after the High Court was told on Monday that there is no record of his law degree.

"We demand that the law minister be sacked," Congress leader Ajay Maken said today.

Yesterday, Bihar’s Tilak Manjhi Bhagalpur University filed an inquiry report in court stating that Mr Tomar’s provisional certificate is "fabricated and doesn’t exist in the university’s record." It said that the serial number on the certificate threw up a "different person’s name from a different stream."

The report also alleged that the university’s record had been tampered with. The court has asked the minister to respond to this by August 20.

The university had replied to the court’s notice on a petition alleging that Mr Tomar had used a "false and bogus" degree to become an advocate.

Mr Tomar, 48, is a first time minister. He has faced questions over his qualifications since the day he was named part of Arvind Kejriwal’s slim team.

A court had earlier asked another institution, the Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University in Uttar Pradesh, to confirm his graduation degree in science after similar allegations.

"These things were brought to the notice of Arvind Kejriwal by Prashant Bhushan and other leaders. If Arvind Kejriwal fails to remove the law minister and take moral responsibility than day after tomorrow, we will hold a massive demonstration outside the Delhi Secretariat," Mr Maken said.

The BJP also targeted the AAP government. "I want to ask how such a person was given the charge of the law ministry and why he is still continuing in his office," said the party’s Meenakshi Lekhi.

AAP has said that Mr Tomar will respond to the allegations in court.

Jitender Singh Tomar is AAP’s second law minister to embarrass the party.

AAP’s previous law minister Somnath Bharti was excoriated last year for his ill-advised midnight raid at a south Delhi colony that targeted Nigerian women.

Courtesy: NDTV