Forgery case: ex-SFI leader K Vidya in custody till July 6

Palakkad: K Vidya, who was arrested for allegedly forging an experience certificate for a guest lecturer’s job in a government college in Kerala, was sent to judicial custody till July 6th. A court in Palakkad allowed the police to take her into custody for the next two days. Meanwhile, her anticipatory bail will come up on Saturday, when her police custody ends.

The former Students Federation of India (SFI) leader Vidya forged certificates that claimed that she taught Malayalam at Kochi's Maharaja’s College as a guest lecturer in 2018-2019 and 2020-2021. The certificate helped her get a job at a Government College in Kasaragod and she later submitted the same experience certificates to apply for the post of guest lecturer at a state-run college in Palakkad.

A Kasargod resident, Vidya is an alumnus of the same Maharaja's College.

Vidya was taken into police custody from her friend's house in Kozhikode on Wednesday night.

Claiming innocence, Vidya said that her arrest on Wednesday night was a "trap" against her and the state CPI(M) leadership by Congress. She is learned to have told the police that she has done no wrong and that she is a victim of a "deep-rooted" conspiracy hatched by the Congress-backed teachers' organization.

CPI(M) central committee leader AK Balan countered the delay in the arrest of Vidya by pointing out that when the country is burning, the Prime Minister is doing yoga in the US.

"The Congress here is not bothered about such things and is busy targeting Vijayan and the SFI for vested interests. In Kerala, the SFI rules in more than 80 per cent of the educational institutions, and the support base of the CPI(M) is around 45 per cent, which shows SFI has a huge support base cutting across political parties. So SFI is one organization that has become part and parcel of the state and they are being targeted. Just look at the status of the Congress-led KSU, it's nowhere to be seen," said Balan.

Vidya has been booked under Section 465 (punishment for forgery), 468 (committing forgery for the purpose of cheating), and 471 (fraudulently using forged documents as genuine) of the IPC.

Meanwhile, her counsel said, "We do not know how she was taken into custody when her anticipatory bail plea was pending before the High Court.”

Responding to the development, Congress accused the police of playing a foul game as despite knowing everything, they did not take any action against those CPI (M) leaders who managed to keep her out of the public glare.

With inputs from IANS