State health minister Shanker Chaudhary
A minister in Gujarat is in trouble for allegedly faking his MBA degree.
The High Court has asked for an investigation into a complaint that state health minister Shanker Chaudhary lied about his business management degree dated 2012.
Earlier this year, the Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party was embarrassed over allegations that two of its lawmakers had made false claims about their educational qualifications. One of them, Jitender Tomar, was forced to quit as the Delhi Law Minister.
A similar discrepancy in the Gujarat minister's claims was pointed out by social activist Farsu Goklani, who has alleged in a petition that the minister had written 2012 as the year he got his professional degree though records suggested he had finished high school just the previous year.
Mr Goklani says he received the information from Mr Chaudhary's school in Patan. "I had filed an RTI (Right to Information) query asking his school when he had passed his (Class 10 and 12) exams. It is not possible that he would have obtained an MBA degree within a year of finishing school as he mentioned in his poll affidavit," he said.
The activist also alleged that the college from where Mr Chaudhary got his fake degree was involved in a fake certificate racket in 2008.
The minister denied the allegation and said he would give a detailed response in court. "There is no substance in these claims," he said.
The High Court has ordered the Election Commission to look into Mr Chaudhary's claims in his poll affidavit. The minister, the Election Commission and the state government have been asked to respond to a notice by October 29.