A Delhi court has ordered framing of charges against former Delhi Law Minister Jitendra Singh Tomar, allegedly for submitting forged degree certificates while enrolling himself with the Bar Council of Delhi. Stating that submitting “forged” certificates seems to be part of a larger conspiracy, the court framed charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy, among others. According to the chargesheet, Tomar was allegedly “desperate” to get a graduation or postgraduation degree, and tried all possible ways to procure one. “He took admission in Shivaji College/Rajdhani College, Delhi University in different streams, that is Science and Arts, but could not succeed, so he opted for illegal means, creating fake and forged documents, degrees, marksheets as well as RTI replies,” the chargesheet alleges. Police had alleged that Tomar forged a BSc degree from Avadh University, on the basis of which he got into a law college under Tilka Manjhi University in Bhagalpur, where he did not take any exams but managed to get an LLB degree. He later got admission in Biswanath Singh Institute of Legal Studies in Munger. But he never attended classes nor appeared for any exams, police alleged. Police had filed the chargesheet on March 15 before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sandeep Garg in the Saket district court. ACMM Samar Vishal said, “In this manner he has cheated the Bar Council of Delhi as the Bar Council would not have registered him as an advocate had he not used forged documents for registration. He also seems to be in criminal conspiracy with other accused in preparation of forged documents for enrolling himself with Bar Council of Delhi and he committed an offence of cheating and criminal conspiracy to cheat Bar Council of Delhi.” Contesting the allegations, Tomar said that the court does not have any jurisdiction as the admission to LLB had been taken in Bihar. The court, however, said it is of no consequence because the forged document was used in Delhi and seems to be part of a “larger conspiracy”. “An accused can be discharged only if the charges are groundless and I have no reason to believe that at this stage,” ACMM Vishal said. After allegations against him surfaced, Tomar had resigned from the party in June 2015.
