Certificate forgery: Agaly police to probe, college readies to move court against teacher

Kochi: Agaly police will probe the case against former SFI leader K Vidya accused of forging an experience certificate from Ernakulam Maharaja's College.

Sheallegedly used the fake certificate to obtain a guest lecturer's post at the Attapady Government College.

Ernakulam central police, which registered the case on Maharaja's College principal's complaint on Tuesday, will hand over the case to Agaly police as the crime was reported in Attapadi college.

Meanwhile, Karinthalam Govt Arts and Science College in Kasaragod decided to initiate legal proceedings against Vidya after Maharaja's College confirmed that the experience certificate was indeed fake.

Vidya worked at the Karinthalam college from June 2022 to March 2023. She had submitted the same experience certificate at Karinthalam college.

When the fake certificate issue made headlines, the Karinthalam college authorities summoned an emergency council meeting and decided to verify the certificate submitted by Vidya.

The college has forwarded this certificate to the Maharaja's College through the digital document filing system.

As per the UGC rules, colleges must hold council meetings to decide on matters related to academics. College principal-in-charge Dr Jaison V Joseph, heads of departments Dr Jinson Joseph, Dr Nevil Stephen, Dr T S Sreeja and college junior superintendent M Nikhil Sharma attended the council meeting.

Sources said Vidya had attended UGC evaluation camps while working in Karinthalam college.

“Further action will be taken after examining Maharaja's College principal's reply about the certificate,” said Jaison.

Congress' Kinanoor constituency committee has lodged a complaint with Kanhangad DYSP and college principal seeking a detailed probe into the controversy.

The fraud was exposed when Vidya produced the fake certificate at the Government College, Attappady, on June 2 while attending an interview for the guest lecturer's post in the Malayalam department.

Members of the interview panel grew suspicious of the logo and seal of the college on the certificate and subsequently contacted the management. 

Vidya’s certificate claimed that she had worked as a guest lecturer at the Maharaja’s College during 2018-19 and 2020-21. However, college authorities told the interview panel that no guest lecturer was appointed in the Malayalam department in the past 10 years.