The mounting woes of Jitender Tomar: Doubts over degrees grow, AAP contemplates booting him

Even as a Delhi Police team travels with former Delhi law minister Jitender Tomar in order to verify his degrees from different colleges, they maintain that as per their initial findings, the AAP leader was studying two unlikely courses at the same time: arts and science. And time may be running out for the former minister as his party contemplates expelling him. As per information received in an RTI application filed by former BJP MLA, Nand Kishore Garg, Tomar was a student of BA at Rajdhani College in Delhi University between 1985-88. However, it was during the same period that Tomar has claimed that he was a student of the Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh where he obtained a BSc degree, according to an Indian Express report. According to Tomar, however, he dropped out of the Delhi course in the final year, a Hindustan Times report said. [caption id=“attachment_2292840” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Tomar being escorted by a police official. PTI image[/caption] The report further states that while the Delhi degree course would have ended in three years, the Science course in Uttar Pradesh ended in two years. Tomar on Friday was taken by the Delhi Police officers to the Bishwanath Singh Institute of Legal Study College at Munger and Bhagalpur-based Tilka Majhi University, to which the college is affiliated. “Physical verification of his law degree will be conducted in his presence,” a top Delhi Police official said. Tomar was earlier taken to KS Saket PG College and RML Avadh University in Faizabad, from where he claimed to have earned his BSc degree. He was given a tour of the campuses and was also brought face-to-face with teachers and officials of the institutions, whose statements were also recorded, police said. These included teachers who taught the 1987-88 batch and also some students who passed out that year, the same year he claimed to have graduated. However, that trip reportedly didn’t go too well. According to police officials, he failed to locate his classroom, physics laboratory and the washroom in the college that he went to.  A Hindustan Times report quoted Delhi Police sources as saying that they asked him to lead the way to his college but that didn’t happen. “Whenever we asked him anything, he just gave a blank look. At first, he gave muddled up replies but then he quit and chose to keep quiet all throughout,” an official was quoted as saying. The police also said that the investigation at Faizabad “more or less” corroborated the earlier police findings that his degrees were fabricated. However, all of it needs to be taken with a giant pinch of salt given that none of this will be admissible as evidence against the former minister in court. The Delhi Police had earlier 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 too. For Tomar, it only makes things worse as he now reportedly faces expulsion from the party over the fake degree scandal, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal has reportedly had enough of the issue and defending his former minister. “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,” an anonymous senior leader told PTI. “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,” the leader said. The party has for now referred the issue to the AAP’s internal Lokpal and action would be take after the body submits its report. AAP is also understood to be contemplating withdrawing the services of its legal cell head HS Phoolka as Tomar’s lawyer. There may never be a better opportunity for Tomar to prove what he has learnt in his postgraduate course. With inputs from PTI