It was a mixed day from the Kerala unit of the ruling Left major CPI’s student wing SFI, as its former leader K. Vidya, in police custody on charges of forging documents for a teacher’s job in a government college, got bail, while current leader Nikhil Thomas, arrested for forging a certificate, was sent to judicial custody for a week.
Vidya was arrested on Wednesday night and then said the case is a “trap” against her and the state CPI-M leadership by the Congress.
Accused of forging her experience certificate to secure the post of a guest lecturer at a state-run college in Palakkad, 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’ organisation.
A Kasargod resident, Vidya was taken into police custody from her friend’s house in Kozhikode on Wednesday.
On Saturday, a court in Palakkad district, despite strong opposition from the prosecution, granted her bail after she pleaded that she has a health problem and was willing to abide by any condition that the court puts forward.
Following her plea, the court granted her bail but asked her to furnish two sureties and surrender her passport besides presenting herself before the probe official once in two weeks.
She got another relief when in a similar case registered in Kasargod for a similar crime, even though an arrest warrant was there and the police team from there was waiting to take her into custody, it was told that she needs to present herself before them after three days.
In the case related to Thomas, he was on the run for the past five days after it surfaced that he had produced forged documents that he passed B.Com from Kalinga University, Raipur and got admission for M.Com at MSM College Kayamkulam in Alappuzha district.
It was early on Saturday that Thomas was taken into custody by the police from Kottayam and was produced before a court in Alappuzha district which sent him to judicial custody for a week.
Thomas’ counsel said his bail application will be heard on Monday.
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