Jitender Singh Tomar faces expulsion, ‘misled’ CM Arvind Kejriwal

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The recently reconstituted internal Lokpal has three members — former IPS officer N Dilip Kumar, former DG CISF Rakesh Sinha and educationist S P Verma.

Sources in the AAP said Tomar could be expelled from the party as the top leadership — including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal — now feels that he may not have been entirely truthful even to the party.

Addressing the media on Friday, AAP leaders refused to answer questions on whether the party would withdraw legal aid to Tomar. The former law minister is currently in police custody in Uttar Pradesh. Thus far, despite him stepping down from the post of law minister, the party has been supportive of Tomar, publicly iterating their belief that he would come through.

“However, the change in attitude has come because of reports coming in that even an RTI reply he produced to validate one of his degrees could be fake. This would be a serious betrayal because he used this to defend himself and contend that he was innocent even in interactions with the chief minister. This was further used to defend him in the public space. Now there are reports which say that was made up, and that will be a grievous accusation within the party. Despite him knowing that we were taking on the police for him, using the proof that he gave us through the RTI reply, if he was lying, it will become almost certain that he will be expelled,” a senior leader said.

Sources also said that they would wait till Tomar’s questioning by the police ends, after which the internal Lokpal panel would put him through several questions.

“Now, there is doubt towards much that he said. The party cannot, in any situation, be caught in allegations of corruption, especially by somebody who was a minister. However, we will wait for the Lokpal because it is clear that the police is gunning for the party,” a leader said.

Publicly, the AAP leadership hit back at the Centre, demanding that the educational qualifications of HRD Minister Smriti Irani and HRD MoS Ram Shankar Katheria be made public.

“In one year, no fast track courts have been set up to probe MPs, MLAs and ministers. The Centre has not taken any step in this direction. No one was proven guilty, no probe was conducted. In his (PM Narendra Modi’s) own Council of Ministers, 30 per cent people have serious criminal charges against them. It is possible that, since he is going on so many foreign trips, he might not be aware about serious criminal charges against his own ministers,” Singh said.

“We have referred the case of Tomar to the party’s internal Lokpal. Now, we want the Delhi Police to investigate charges of false educational qualification against Union ministers Smriti Irani and Ram Shankar Katheria,” Singh said.