Former Delhi Law Minister Jitender Singh Tomar on Tuesday was remanded in four-day police custody in the fake degrees case by a Delhi court.
While remanding the ex-Minister in the Delhi Police custody till June 12, Metropolitan Magistrate Navjeet Budiraja dismissed his plea for interim bail.
The Magistrate admitted argument by the Special Public Prosecutor that the accused ex-Minister required to be taken to the colleges and the universities from where he claimed to have obtained the B.Sc. and the LLB degrees to confront him with the authorities whose signatures appear on those as they were found to be forged in the investigation.
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Earlier, seeking five-day police remand of the former Minister, the prosecutor submitted that the investigating agency had lodged the case after verifying Mr. Tomar’s degrees with the competent authorities, which were found to be fabricated.
Opposing the arrest and the plea for police remand, counsel for the ex-Minister, senior advocate H.S. Phoolka submitted that the case was a political vendetta, and Mr. Tomar was arrested under political pressure.
Mr. Phoolka also questioned the Delhi Police on the procedures adopted by them in the investigation.
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He said that the police sought the originals of the degrees and the mark sheets from the ex-Minister after he was arrested. Actually, the notice for summoning the documents was served on him at the police station where he was taken after being arrested.
Similarly, the police served a notice on him for his interrogation when he was in their custody which was in violation of the procedures to be adopted in the investigation of a criminal case as per the Criminal Procedure Code.
Upon his, the Magistrate said that the procedures adopted by the police appeared to be very fast.
Mr. Phoolka further argued that the role of the Delhi Police in the case smacked of the ‘Police Raj’ in the Capital.
He also alleged that the police arrested Mr. Tomar in a hush-hush manner. The police reached his office in the morning and asked him to accompany, saying they had to collect certain documents at his residence.
As the ex-Minister’s car was proceeding towards his house, the police asked the driver to get down and took him to the police station.
Arguing for interim bail, Mr. Phoolka said that the former Minister was ready to go along with the investigating officer wherever he wanted to take him in connection with the investigation.
Mr. Phoolka also questioned the sources from where the police had obtained the degrees and mark sheets of the ex-Minister which they claimed to be fabricated.
The degrees and the mark sheets were with the ex-Minister and he handed those to the investigating agency only on Tuesday. The police started investigating the case when the Bar Council of Delhi wrote a complaint to them on May 11 requesting to probe the matter and file a report.
Ex-Minister’s counsel submitted that the case was a political vendetta, and Tomar was arrested under political pressure