Munger/New Delhi, June 9: The arrest of Delhi law minister Jitendra Singh Tomar is based on documents Delhi police had collected from Bishwanath Singh Institute of Legal Studies in Munger and Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University (TMBU) on May 26 and 27.
The controversy boils down to whether the provisional LLB certificate of Tomar and the graduation certificate that made him eligible for the law course are authentic or not.
TMBU pro-vice-chancellor A.K. Roy said today: "A few months ago, we received a Delhi High Court order asking us to verify if the (LLB) provisional certificate of Jitendra Singh Tomar was genuine or not. We examined our documents and found out that the serial number of the provisional certificate issued in 2001 was in the name of another person, Sanjay Kumar Choudhary. Accordingly, we gave an affidavit to the court that the provisional certificate did not appear genuine.
"Last month, a Delhi police officer, Anand Swaroop of Hauz Khas police station, came to us to investigate the case. He asked us on what basis Tomar was given admission."
Roy said he told Swaroop that the law college in Munger was affiliated to the university and the onus of admission fell on the college.
"The inspector went to the college in Munger and took some documents. When he returned, he asked us whether Tomar was registered with our university. We found he was.
"But the registration showed that Tomar was a former student of Bundelkhand University, Jhansi (in Uttar Pradesh), whereas the documents of his admission showed that he was a student of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University at Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh. After that, the university has no knowledge about the case," Roy added.
An inquiry by the university had found that Tomar had registered himself with the varsity two years after he had passed out from the Munger college, according to Manindra Kumar Singh, inspector of colleges (arts and commerce), of the TMBU. Singh has been authorised by TMBU to present the affidavit in Delhi High Court.
"Inquiry officer Ashutosh Prasad Singh (inspector of colleges, science) detected that Tomar submitted his migration certificate from Bundelkhand University to the registration department of TMBU in 2001, two years after he passed out (from the Munger college affiliated to the law varsity). Then, he got the TMBU registration number illegally and got those entered in the LLB marksheets with the collusion of some employees of the registration department," said Singh.
Delhi police joint commissioner of police (special cell) R.S. Krishnaiah claimed that both the BSc certificate and the law degree of Tomar were found to have been forged. "The facsimile signature of Rajender Prasad Singh as the controller of examination on the honourable member's LLB Part III marksheet and the provisional degree were found to be forged," Krishnaiah said.
Another police officer said the controller of examinations of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University reported that its records did not show any BSc degree or mark sheet having been issued in the name of Tomar.
The record of KS Saket Postgraduate College, Ayodhya, which is affiliated to RML Avadh University and where Tomar claimed to have studied, also did not show his name, the officer added.
Tomar had said that the roll number revealed through an RTI query, which was the basis of the complaint against him, was wrong. But the police claim their conclusions are based on their own investigations, not the RTI reply.
Expelled AAP leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav had raised questions about Tomar's educational qualification during the Assembly elections earlier this year.
On May 26, inspector Swaroop had visited the Bishwanath Singh law institute in Munger and met its acting principal, Maya Sinha, and head clerk Krishnandan Prasad for two hours in the library office.
The officer took with him photocopies of documents related to Tomar's admission in Part I, Part II and Part III of the LLB course between 1994 and 1999.
Acting principal Sinha showed the investigating police officer the original admission registers of the college and the mark sheets related to Tomar.
The college authorities told the officer that Tomar was enrolled for the law course on the basis of a BSc degree issued from Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University at Faizabad.
The head clerk of the law college, Krishnandan Prasad, said: "If the graduation degree is a fake one, the LLB degree would automatically become invalid. When anyone questions the genuineness of the graduation degree of a law student, the college principal would immediately begin the process of its verification. The same happened in the case of Tomar. As long as he was associated with this college as a student, nobody questioned his graduation degree or his admission as a law student. The college didn't verify Tomar's graduation degree from UP."
In a report published by The Telegraph on April 30, R.K. Mishra, the principal of Bishwanath Singh Institute of Legal Studies, had said Tomar had sat for the first, second and third semesters between 1994 and 1998. "Tomar did not sit with his batchmates for the Part III exam, skipping a year. He sat for it the next year and his results were declared in 1999," Mishra had said.
On May 26, inspector Swaroop had waited for sometime in the library office to avoid reporters waiting outside. Eventually, he had rushed down the stairs and boarded a car. Requested to speak to the media, Swaroop had put his cellphone to his ear and repeatedly said: "No, no, talk to my seniors."
The Bar Council of Delhi has taken a prima facie view that minister Tomar had sought enrolment as a lawyer on the basis of forged documentation and fake representation. The Bar Council of Delhi has sent a written complaint to the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) (south Delhi) and has sought a police investigation and the registration of a criminal case against Tomar in this case.
The Bar Council of Delhi, in its complaint to DCP (south Delhi), has alleged that Tomar had enrolled as a lawyer with the Bar Council of Delhi in 2011 on the basis of a forged BSc degree and a forged provisional LLB certificate.
