Former Delhi Law Minister Jitender Singh Tomar grilled for the second day in Faizabad

Faizabad: Former Delhi Law Minister Jitender Singh Tomar was on Thursday grilled here for the second day in the fake degree case with Delhi police trying to gather evidence on the veracity of his documents.

The AAP leader, who was arrested on Tuesday and remanded in four-day police custody, was taken to the Saket Degree College in Faizabad where documents were being examined, police said.

Tomar, who was brought here on Wednesday, was kept at an undisclosed location during the night. Earlier, it was reported that he was being taken to Munger in Bihar for verification of his degrees after initial interrogation in Faizabad yesterday. The RML Awadh University, from where he claimed to have graduated, yesterday denied having any such record.

A Delhi Police team had examined documents at the Awadh University Registrar's office and taken them in a sealed cover. Stating its willingness to cooperate with the ongoing probe into the case, the university stood by its earlier stand, saying Tomar's BSc degree was a forged one.

"One Pradeep Kumar had filed an RTI asking for verification of a set of documents related to Tomar's mark sheets and degree. The university had replied on January 22 saying it had nothing of that sort in its records. We stand by our previous stand," its media in-charge S N Shukla said.

He was replying to a question on Tomar's B.Sc degree. Tomar had also claimed to have completed his LLB degree from VNSL Studies, a law college affiliated to Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University of Bihar.

On way to Faizabad, Tomar had yesterday maintained that the allegations against him were false and accused the Centre of a "conspiracy". Tomar, who quit as Delhi Law Minister after his arrest yesterday, claimed that his degrees were "genuine". 49-year-old Tomar, MLA from Delhi's Trinagar constituency and a first-time minister, 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. The possibility of an organised racket behind the alleged fake degrees is being probed, Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi told reporters in the national capital yesterday.