Union Minister in row over charge of marks forgery

Newly-inducted Minister of State for HRD Ram Shankar Katheria was today at the centre of a controversy over an allegation that his graduation marksheet was forged, a charge he strongly denied.

A case was filed in 2010 by his rival BSP candidate in Allahabad High Court charging him with forging his marksheet. The court has, however, referred the matter to the Sessions Court in Agra, which will hear it on November 26.

"I was slapped with four cases every day by the (erstwhile) BSP government deliberately. They did not get any proof. I was cleared of all the charges even when BSP was in power," he said, rejecting the allegation against him.

Katheria told NDTV that this case of forgery against him was "politically motivated" and expressed the hope he would come clean.

According to the complaint, he had forged his Hindi as well as English marks. A day after the swearing in of ministers on Sunday, an NGO had released a report which said Katheria, BJP MP from Agra, declared a case related to attempt to murder and one related to promoting enmity between different groups registered against him.

However, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley dismissed the allegation against Katheria that there were 27 criminal cases against him including one of attempt to murder. "Every BJP worker in the state has a criminal case filed by the Akhilesh Yadav government," he said.