Fake degree case: Police custody of Tomar extended by two days

New Delhi, Jun 13: The police custody of ex-Delhi Law Minister Jitender Singh Tomar was today extended by two days by a court here after the Delhi Police claimed that documents produced by him were "fabricated" and charges under Prevention of Corruption Act might also be invoked in the case.

49-year-old Tomar, who was arrested in the case on June 9, was prodcued 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 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 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 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.

PTI