Kerala police took another person connected with the fake degree certificate case into custody today, June 27.
The second accused in the controversial fake certificate row, Abin C Raj, was picked up by the Kayamkulam police from the international airport in Kochi this morning.
The police suspected that Raj, a former leader of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), has helped Nikhil Thomas, the prime accused in the case, forge a fake degree certificate to submit at the Kayamkulam-based Milad-E-Sherif Memorial (MSM) College to gain admission.
Raj was reportedly employed as a teacher in the Maldives. "He was working abroad and we brought him to Kerala with the help of his parents. When he landed at the airport, we immediately took him into custody," a police officer told PTI.
Currently, Raj is being interrogated by the police.
"As per the statement given by Thomas, Abin Raj had helped him forge the fake degree certificate with the support of an agency. Thomas also said he had handed over the money to Raj for the same," the police officer added.
Police were granted seven-day custody of Nikhil Thomas, who is also a former SFI leader, by a court in Kayamkulam on Saturday, June 25.
Nikhil Thomas was expelled from the primary membership of the SFI after the union had come under attack from various quarters over the fake certificate charges.
According to allegations made by the Kerala Students' Union (KSU), the student wing of the Congress in Kerala, Thomas had obtained a seat for an MCom course in the same college after submitting a "fake degree certificate".
KSU further claimed that Thomas failed his BCom degree course at the MSM College, but provided a certificate from Kalinga University, Chhattisgarh for MCom admission.
