Kapil Mishra to be Delhi's law minister

New Delhi: Delhi Jal Board vice-chairman Kapil Mishra, on Wednesday was named as the new Law Minister replacing Jitender Singh Tomar who had resigned from the post on Tuesday night following his arrest on charge of possessing fake degrees.

"I had a meeting with Arvind ji (Kejriwal) and have been informed about the development (of appointment as the law minister)," Mishra, a first time MLA, told PTI.

Other names which were discussed were Chandani Chowk MLA Alka Lamba, former law minister Somnath Bharti (Malviya Nagar) and Kailash Gahlot, legislator from Najafgarh. 34-year-old Mishra's name was also doing rounds for a ministerial berth when AAP had won a landslide victory in February this year. However, he was made the vice-chairman of Delhi Jal Board.

Known as a Kejriwal loyalist, Mishra has been associated with him since the India Against Corruption (IAC) days. When Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan upped their ante against the party leadership, he took a lead in starting a signature campaign urging all MLAs to back Kejriwal.

Mishra, a former activist with an international organisation, won from Karawal Nagar by a margin of over 44,000 votes and took oath in Sanskrit in the Delhi Assembly. Tomar was arrested yesterday for allegedly forging his science graduation and law mark sheets and a migration certificate. He was sent to four days police custody by a court.

He had sent his resignation letter through his lawyer from lock-up to the Chief Minister last night which was accepted.