NEW DELHI:Former Delhi Law Minister Jitender Singh Tomar was sent to Tihar jail on Sunday, after his police remand ended in the fake degree case.
The AAP leader has been in police custody since June 9, after he was arrested for fabricating documents and submitting fake degrees while filing nomination papers for the Delhi Assembly polls held in February.
Tomar was produced before the Saket Court, which refused to grant him any reprieve and sent him in judicial custody for a day.
The Delhi Police told the court that they do not require Tomar’s custody for now and he be sent to 14-day judicial custody. They also moved an application seeking his specimen signature.
Metropolitan Magistrate Ankit Singla said that as the police have moved the application for specimen signature, Tomar be sent to one-day judicial remand and produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate where the police plea would be decided.
The magistrate also recused himself from becoming a witness to the Delhi Police’s plea for taking specimen signature citing personal reasons.
“I have already conveyed my request to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate to recuse me from deciding the applications in the case due to personal reasons. Therefore, I can’t become witness to factum of taking specimen signatures of the accused,” Singla said.
“In the circumstances, the investigating officer submits that the accused be sent to one-day judicial custody as his presence is required for taking specimen signature... Accused is granted one-day judicial custody,” Singla said.
During the hearing, Tomar moved an application through his advocate Harshit Jain seeking a direction to the jail superintendent and court lock-up incharge that he be lodged in a separate ward and be taken to jail in a separate van due to security reasons.
The court accepted the plea and directed the jail superintendent to make arrangements for the same.
Tomar, an MLA from Trinagar, was arrested on June 9 following an investigation into the complaint by the Bar Council of Delhi that he had obtained a fake law degree from a 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.
