Alappuzha: Kalinga University in Chhattisgarh has confirmed that former SFI leader Nikhil Thomas submitted a fake certificate of the university to obtain MCom admission to Kayamkulam MSM College. On Tuesday, a team of Kayamkulam Police visited the university and submitted Nikhil's certificate for verification before the concerned officials.

Following this, the officials declared the certificate fake and confirmed that Nikhil Thomas never enrolled as a student at the university.

Dr Sandeep Gandhi, registrar of the university told Manorama News that the forgery was identified after examining the certificate produced by the police.

The university official also revealed that they had informed the matter to the MSM college principal through email. He noted that the university will cooperate with the police investigation.

Meanwhile, Kerala University also forwarded the certificate of Nikhil to Kalinga University after the allegations made headlines. Police have registered a case against Nikhil over the complaint from Kerala University. 

At the time of MCom admission, Nikhil had furnished a degree certificate purportedly from Kalinga University claiming that he used to be a student at the university between 2019 and 2021. Nikhil studied BCom at Kayamkulam MSM College during the 2018-20 period, but he didn't clear the exam. In 2021, he enrolled for MCom in the same college with degree certificates issued by Kalinga University in 2019-21.

A complaint before the Alappuzha SFI district committee revealed the fake certificate row. Alappuzha district committee removed Nikhil after another SFI member submitted the complaint. The complainant noted how could Nikhil study at two colleges under two different universities in the same period.

On Tuesday, the SFI state committee expelled Nikhil from the outfit citing that he tried to mislead the union with fake arguments in his explanation over the row.