A Delhi court on Thursday refused to grant interim relief to former law minister Jitender Singh Tomar, accused in a fake degree case, and deferred the hearing on his bail application till June 16.
Additional sessions judge Sanjeev Jain deferred the bail hearing while observing that the investigating officer of the case was out of Delhi with the accused and the progress report and documents related to the case were not available to the court.
"It is in the interest of all the parties that the bail plea is decided after considering the records on expiry of the police remand. Put up the bail application for June 16 before the court of competent jurisdiction," the judge said.
The court said that the matter requires "objective consideration" after going through the records.
"Order for interim bail will further complicate the matter and the same is neither appropriate nor desirable," the judge said.
The court directed the investigating officer to appear in person with records of the case on the next date of hearing.
On Tuesday, a magistrate had sent Tomar in four-day police remand following his arrest in the fake law degree case. The Delhi Police had arrested Tomar on Tuesday and registered a case of cheating, forgery and conspiracy against him.
The police, while seeking Tomar's custody, had told the court that the investigation in the case was at its initial stages and the documents pertaining to the law degree obtained by him were "fake".
Challenging the magisterial court order that granted the four-day custody, Tomar's counsel Ramesh Gupta had alleged that his client's arrest was "illegal".
Advocate Gupta, however, withdrew his plea on Thursday after the sessions judge granted him liberty to file a fresh and proper plea against the magisterial court's order.
Arguing for bail, Gupta requested the court to grant Tomar interim bail till the final disposal of his regular bail, claiming that he has been "implicated in a false case".
Gupta questioned the urgency of Tomar's arrest by the Delhi Police: "Why was there such an urgency to arrest Tomar? He was abducted by police so that he could not move anticipatory bail."
The counsel said that the objective of the arrest was to "tarnish the image of his client."
The Delhi Police opposed the bail plea of the former minister.
Public prosecutor Tarunvir Singh Khehar requested the court to defer the hearing saying that police are now "handicapped" as the investigating officer of the case was out of the city with the entire case records.
