Fake degree case: Court refuses to grant bail to Jitender Singh Tomar

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court today refused to grant bail to former Delhi law minister Jitender Singh Tomar in the alleged forged degree case, saying the investigation is at a crucial stage.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Tarun Yogesh dismissed the bail application of Tomar, who is in judicial custody till July 20, after Delhi Police submitted that he may tamper with evidence if released.

Tomar had sought bail on the ground that as the probe in the matter was over, he could not be kept in jail.

"Investigation is complete. I cannot be kept in jail. I am a Delhi resident and I will not run away from here," senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, who was appearing for Tomar, said. Delhi Police, opposed the bail plea, with Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava contending that he might tamper with the evidence in the case if released.

"It is a serious case and is at a crucial stage of investigation. He might tamper with evidence if he is granted bail," Shrivastava said. The court had on July 6 extended by 14 days the judicial custody of Tomar after Delhi Police informed it that the probe in the case was in progress.

The court had also allowed the police to take specimen signature of Tomar in the presence of a magistrate so as to match the samples with the new documents recovered from different universities in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Earlier, on June 22, the court had dismissed his bail plea while observing that being a public representative and an MLA, allegations against Tomar were "grave in nature". Tomar, an MLA from Trinagar here, was arrested on June 9 following a probe into the complaint by Bar Council of Delhi that he had obtained a fake law degree from the Bihar college.

An FIR was registered against Tomar on June 8 at Hauz Khas police station and he was booked for alleged offences of cheating, forgery, using forged documents as genuine, forgery with intent to cheat and criminal conspiracy under the IPC.