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Delhi Law Minister Jitender Singh Tomar on Thursday wrote a letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the controversy surrounding his law degree, and said the allegation of it being fake was “baseless” and intended to “malign” his image and that of the party.
Tomar also threatened to file a defamation suit against Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nand Kishor Garg, who had moved court challenging the authenticity of his degrees, for “maligning” his name.
Kejriwal had on Tuesday asked Tomar to clarify his stand on the matter after Bihar's TilkaManjhiBhagalpurUniversity submitted in Delhi High Court that his provisional certificate was “fabricated and does not exist in the institution's record”.
In his letter to Kejriwal, Tomar said, “As it was getting clear that he (Nand Kishore Garg) was likely to lose his seat (assembly election), he started resorting to dirty tricks to malign my name. When nothing else seemed to work, he filed an election petition in the High Court raising questions with regards to the authenticity of my graduation and law degrees.”
Claiming the documents furnished by Garg are “incorrect”, Tomar said, “Garg runs a couple of universities in Delhi as well as Himachal Pradesh and due to his contacts with other universities, he has been able to obtain certain documents by citing incorrect particulars. These incorrect documents have been cited as evidence in the election petition.”
Tomar said senior BJP leaders are trying to sully his image by resorting to falsehood. They are trying to “dent the image of our party through these baseless allegations.”
The election petition was filed on the basis of a reply received by Ghaziabad resident Pradeep from Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University, Faizabad.
In the reply, the university had indicated that Tomar's graduation degree under Roll No 31331 was forged. Replying to which Tomar wrote, “It may be interesting to note that this reply based on almost 30 years old record has been furnished by the university within a day of an application to this effect being filed by Pradeep.”
Tomar said senior BJP leaders are trying to sully his image by resorting to falsehood. They are trying to “dent the image of our party through these baseless allegations.”
The election petition was filed on the basis of a reply received by Ghaziabad resident Pradeep from Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University, Faizabad.
In the reply, the university had indicated that Tomar's graduation degree under Roll No 31331 was forged. Replying to which Tomar wrote, “It may be interesting to note that this reply based on almost 30 years old record has been furnished by the university within a day of an application to this effect being filed by Pradeep.”
Tomar also enclosed the copy of an RTI filed by Garg's counsel Deepak Vohra with PG College, Ayodhya.
In reply to the RTI application, the college has accepted that Tomar obtained Bachelor of Science degree between 1986 and 1988. But the college also mentioned that BSc first year roll number mentioned by the applicant is wrong and as per the record, his roll number is 40717.
The college also mentioned that Tomar completed BSc second year from the college but the roll number mentioned in the application is wrong and as per the record his roll number is 31518. It was a two-year course.
Tomar, in his letter to the Chief Minister, mentioned that the reply clarifies that the roll number ‘31331’ as mentioned in the RTI application is incorrect and the correct roll number is ‘31518’.
“I am certain that truth will prevail and once all the documents are before the High Court, the petition will be dismissed. I then intend to take action against Garg by filing a defamation suit,” Tomar said.
Rubbishing media reports that the Bar Council of India has issued a notice to him as to why his licence to practice as an advocate should not be suspended, Tomar said he had filed an application on February 16 to the Bar Council of India for suspension of his licence for practising as an advocate upon his nomination as Law Minister.
Tomar has also sent his brother to Faizabad and Bhagalpur to obtain necessary documents from the college and university concerned to further clarify his position.