New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is expected to expel its Trinagar MLA Jitender Singh Tomar, who is under arrest for allegedly possessing fake education degrees, reports said on Friday.
Reports this morning said that Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal is extremely upset with Tomar and is most likely to take the decision of expelling his ex-Cabinet minister. Also, the AAP has decided not to grant legal aid to the MLA, said a report.
It is also being said that Tomar kept Kejriwal and the party in dark about his educational qualifications and even showed him a false RTI reply when a row over his alleged fake degrees erupted.
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 take 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.
The recent Tomar episode has brought huge flak to the AAP government, which rode to power following an emphatic win in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections.
In the dock over his alleged fake degrees, Tomar, the first time MLA, continues to be grilled by the Delhi Police which has taken him to Bihar today for verification of his law degree.
Police officials had taken 49-year-old Tomar to KS Saket PG College and RML Avadh University in Faizabad on Thursday, from where he had claimed to have earned his BSc degree.
He was given a tour of the campuses and was also brought face to face with teachers and officials of the institutions, whose statements were also recorded, police said.
These included teachers who taught the 1987-88 batch and also some students who passed out that year, the same year he claimed to have passed BSc.
Police said he failed to locate his classroom, physics laboratory and the washroom and that investigation at Faizabad "more or less" corroborated the earlier police findings that his degrees were fabricated.
Delhi Police arrested the Aam Aadmi Party leader on Tuesday and slapped a case of cheating, forgery and conspiracy against him over his alleged fake law degree. A magistrate sent Tomar to four days in police custody.
The MLA from Delhi's Trinagar constituency was remanded in four-day police custody by a Delhi court on Tuesday.
Delhi Police has claimed that a nearly month-long investigation found that Tomar not only submitted fake science graduation degree and law mark sheets to register with the Bar Council of Delhi but forged a migration certificate also.
