A court on Monday extended by four more days the police custody of former Delhi law Minister Jitender Tomar after investigators said he needs to be taken to Bundelkhand University to ascertain facts about his allegedly “fabricated” migration certificate. Tomar (49) — arrested in a fake degree case on June 9 —was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Preeti Parewa after expiry of his two-day police remand where cops sought extension of his remand by eight days saying he was also needed to be taken to Munger in Bihar, to verify his address as mentioned in the migration certificate of Bundelkhand University.
Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Atul Shrivastava said that last two days of the police custody were second Saturday and Sunday and it not did serve any purpose during their probe as the colleges were closed. “We have to take him (Tomar) to Bundelkhand University, the place which we have not visited yet, as the fabricated migration certificate of B.Sc was issued from that university and it was submitted to Tilka Manjhi University, Bhagalpur, from where Tomar had alleged pursued his llB degree,” he said.
The migration certificate of B.Sc issued by Bundelkhand University was of the year 2001 while Tomar had allegedly done his llB first year in 1995. Meanwhile, advocate Rajiv Khosla, who appeared for Tomar, opposed police plea saying the very arrest of his client was “illegal” and cops have “misled” the court in taking six days of police remand till date.
Khosla alleged that Bundelkhand University’s migration certificate was a “fabricated document” planted by the police. “They (police) are seeking police remand just to satisfy the lieutenant-Governor of Delhi, the Centre and senior police officials. They want police remand to harass Tomar,” he said. Meanwhile, Shrivastava said that as per the Supreme Court guidelines, 15-day police custody can be granted either in a stretch or in parts so still police remand of eight more days was left.
Also said several seals and signatures of authorities on educational certificates of different universities, where Tomar claims to have studied, were to be ascertained for which his custodial interrogation was required. The police had earlier alleged in the court that documents produced by Tomar were “fabricated” and charges under Prevention of Corruption Act might also be invoked in the case.
Tomar, an MlA from Tri Nagar, was arrested in the morning of June 9 following an investigation into the complaint by Bar Council of Delhi that he had obtained a fake law degree from a Bihar college. An FIR 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.