Fake degree case: Jitender Singh Tomar now faces expulsion from AAP?

Former Delhi law minister Jitender Singh Tomar, arrested on the charges of possessing fake education degrees, might be expelled from the Aam Aadmi Party, according to reports. [caption id=“attachment_2288564” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Jitendra Singh Tomar. AFP image[/caption] The Aam Aadmi Party, which has been backing him throughout the controversy, might finally be losing patience. Two senior party leaders indicated that Tomar could face expulsion from AAP as there is a feeling in the top leadership that he had “misled” them on the issue. “We have zero tolerance on such issues. He was given a fair opportunity but the general feeling is that he tried to mislead the party. There’s a possibility of his expulsion from the party,” a senior leader said. The party leaders said that the issue has been referred to the AAP’s internal Lokpal and action would be take after the body submits its report. The body comprises former IPS officer N Dilip Kumar, former DG CISF Rakesh Sinha and educationist S P Verma. “Arvind (Kejriwal) is very upset. He (Tomar) was given a fair opportunity. He produced certain documents and RTIs and tried convincing everybody. But then you cannot keep lying,” the leader added. Party sources said when the issue of his graduation degree cropped up, AAP also found out that the matter was a bit “fishy”. “When we asked him to come clean on the whole issue, he said it was a political conspiracy against him. We saw his degrees and they appeared to be genuine. We also gave him the benefit of doubt. “Now the issue of his graduation degree has cropped up. We have also got information from different sources about his degree. This has landed the party in a soup,” said another senior party leader. The party is also understood to be contemplating withdrawing the services of its legal cell head HS Phoolka as Tomar’s lawyer. The party dissociating itself from its controversial MLA comes as little surprise even as the Delhi police claim to find more evidence that Tomar’s degrees may not be authentic. The police is taking Tomar to a Bihar university on Friday to verify his claims that he obtained his law degree from that institute, according to the reports from the Hindustan Times. On Thursday, Tomar was grilled for the second day in Faizabad by the Delhi Police over his law degree. 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. Delhi Police has claimed that a nearly month-long investigation found that Tomar not only submitted fake science graduation degree and law mark sheets to register with the Bar Council of Delhi but forged a migration certificate also. With inputs from PTI