‘Upset’ Kejriwal set to sack Tomar from AAP
Ex-minister fails to locate washroom in college he claims to have attended
new delhi — “Upset” with Jitender Singh Tomar who has been arrested in a fake degree case, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is understood to be contemplating withdrawing his legal aide HS Phoolka and even expelling the former law minister from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Two senior party leaders indicated that Tomar could face expulsion from AAP as there is a feeling in the top leadership that he had “misled” them on the issue.
“We have zero tolerance on such issues. He was given a fair opportunity but the general feeling is that he tried to mislead the party. There’s a possibility of his expulsion from the party,” a senior leader said.
The party leaders said that the issue has been referred to the AAP’s internal Lokpal and action would be taken after the body submits its report. The body comprises former IPS officer N Dilip Kumar, former DG CISF Rakesh Sinha and educationist S P Verma.
“Arvind (Kejriwal) is very upset. He (Tomar) was given a fair opportunity. He produced certain documents and RTIs and tried convincing everybody. But then you cannot keep lying,” the leader added.
Party sources said when the issue of his graduation degree cropped up, the AAP also found out that the matter was a bit “fishy”.
“When we asked him to come clean on the whole issue, he said it was a political conspiracy against him. We saw his degrees and they appeared to be genuine. We also gave him the benefit of doubt.
“Now the issue of his graduation degree has cropped up. We have also got information from different sources about his degree. This has landed the party in a soup,” said another senior party leader.
The party is also understood to be contemplating withdrawing the services of its legal cell head HS Phoolka as Tomar’s lawyer.
Forty-nine-year-old Tomar, MLA from Delhi’s Trinagar constituency and a first-time minister, was remanded to four-day police custody by a Delhi court on Tuesday in the fake degree case. Tomar was on Friday brought to Bihar’s Munger district for interrogation in connection with the ongoing probe into his alleged fake law degree, police said. “A Delhi Police team brought arrested minister Tomar to Munger for interrogation into his fake law degree,” said a district police official in Munger, about 170km from here.
Police said Tomar was grilled at Hotel Rajhans in Munger. “The Delhi Police team have collected evidences in the case.”
Tomar would later be taken to the neighbouring Bhagalpur district. Tomar currently is in police remand for four days.
Meanwhile, Tomar failed to recall names of anyone from the time he claims to have studied at Saket College, Faizabad, and former staffers, teachers and students, who were in the college between 1986-88, didn’t remember him.
“None of them could recognise Tomar and nor could he recognise any of them,” said college spokesperson Pradeep Kumar Singh, Indian
Express reported. The Delhi BJP on Friday demanded Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s resignation owning moral responsibility over Tomar’s arrest in the case.
“We demand resignation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s for defending his law minister JS Tomar facing charges of fraud and cheating. Now again he (Kejriwal) is trying to befool people with talks of expelling him from the 7AAP.
“He should make Tomar resign from the Vidhansabha,” said Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay. He alleged that the chief minister who used words like morality, ethics, transparency and sensitivity in his election campaign today stands exposed.
“Today his silence is similar to what we saw during the days after the suspicious suicide of Farmer Gajendra,” Upadhyay said.