BJP leader's wife sues Bihar health minister for defamation

Former Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi's wife on Monday filed a defamation case against state Health Minister Ramdhani Singh who alleged that she used fake degree certificates to get a professor's job in a government college.

Jessy George, the wife of the Bharatiya Janata Party leader, filed the defamation case in the court of the chief judicial magistrate in Patna.

Ramdhani Singh made the allegation after his daughter resigned from the post of a librarian at a hospital following a probe demanded by the BJP into irregularities in her appointment.

He said he would make public the fake degree certificates of George. "I will soon reveal and provide it to the media."

After the allegations, Modi asked the minister to apologise or face defamation charges.

"Ramdhani Singh has needlessly challenged my wife's degree that she has attained from prestigious universities in Patna and Mumbai as fake... I demand that he apologise publicly within seven days or she (Jesse George Modi) will file a defamation case against him," he had said in a statement.

Ramdhani Singh said the case related to Modi's wife was being investigated by the state vigilance department, but the probe has been delayed for over a decade.

In 2002, then superintendent of police Ajay Kumar Varma, who was heading the investigation by the vigilance department, wrote to commissioner U. Panjiar that he was on the verge of proving that George submitted a false certificate, but he was removed.

George's name figured in a scam unearthed by the vigilance panel, which found irregularities in the appointment of many lecturers in colleges recognised by the University Grants Commission.

Her experience certificate from the Raja Rammohun Roy College of Education is also alleged to be fake.

George's certificate shows her experience from 1988 to 1992, whereas the institute was authorised to run BEd courses from 1987 to 1989, Varma had said.