Police said they wanted to bring Tomar face to face with Chauhan. (Source: Express photo)
Seeking two days’ extension of custody of former Delhi law minister Jitender Singh Tomar, the Delhi Police on Friday informed the court that a Delhi resident was being interrogated by it, who allegedly provided the “fake” BSc degree to Tomar.
Police informed the court, which extended Tomar’s custody by two days, that they require the custody as they wanted to bring him face-to-face with Madan Pratap Singh Chauhan — the Delhi resident who is alleged to have provided the “fake” BSc degree to Tomar.
Police said Tomar had disclosed that he got admission into the BSc course, which was arranged by his elder brother, who has since expired, through Chauhan. “Madan has joined the investigation. We have questioned him. Now Tomar and Chauhan need to be brought face-to-face,” police said.
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However, Tomar’s counsel alleged that Chauhan was known to former MLA Nand Kishore Garg, who had earlier filed a petition challenging Tomar’s petition in the High Court. Advocate Rajeev Khosla also moved an application for conducting investigation into the call detail records (CDRs) of Garg, his son Vikas Garg along with Chauhan “to prove the link between these persons”.
“This person (Chauhan) has been distributing BA, BSc and MA degrees for 20 years. He is an influential person. While police has questioned him now, they have not arrested him. It is also learnt that he has been in contact with Garg. We request that the court directs police to seek the CDRs of the three to ascertain Garg’s political involvement in the case,” Khosla said.
Police refuted the argument, saying they were in the process of probing Chauhan and “all persons who are found to be involved in this will be booked in due course of law”.
Meanwhile, police informed the court that the principal of Munger Law College has come to Delhi and that he needs to be brought face-to-face with Tomar, with regard to the records pertaining to his LLB degree. Police further informed that in all, 200 questions had been prepared which were required to be posed to Tomar. The counsel for Tomar also moved the bail application, which is now listed for arguments on Monday.
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After hearing submissions, Metropolitan Magistrate Navjeet Budhiraja said, “The upshot of the above discussion is that in order to pose certain questions to the accused as well as to confront him with the principal… he is remanded to two days of police custody.”
In retrospect, we made a mistake in Tomar case: Sisodia
Deputy CM Manish Sisodia on Friday said in retrospect, it could be said that the AAP government had made a mistake in handling former law minister Jitender Tomar’s case. In an interview aired on CNN IBN, Sisodia said, “Yes you can say that now (that the party made a mistake in the handling of the Tomar case). A mistake is a mistake. When we sought to clarify the allegations he showed us an RTI, a law degree and an affidavit. The only other thing left to do was to leave our work and go to the places to verify… All 67 MLAs showed some documentation… Checks should be carried out against all 67 of our MLAs, but it can’t only be one-sided.”
Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies.
With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health.
His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award.
Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time.
Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More
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Police said they wanted to bring Tomar face to face with Chauhan. (Source: Express photo)
