Former SFI leader K Vidya arrested in forgery case after fifteen days; was found hiding at the house of a SFI leader

Palakkad: Former SFI leader and accused in a forgery case, K Vidya, was arrested from Kozhikode, last night. Her arrest comes after fifteen days on the run, which raised criticisms against the police for not taking necessary steps to arrest her. She was arrested by Agali police and will be brought to court in Mannarkkad in Palakkad at 11 am today.

K Vidya told the police that she was framed in the case by political rivals and said that she has not submitted any forged experience certificate anywhere. It’s believed that Vidya told the police that as she was good in studies she has no need to make forged certificates.

Police say that K Vidya was taken into custody from Meppayur in Kozhikode. This area is known to be a stronghold of the communist party. She was found hiding at the house of her friend, who is an SFI leader in Maharaja’s College. This gives strength to the allegations that the communist party had facilitated her to go underground and remain in hiding for more than two weeks.

The police had registered a case against K Vidya on June 6 after details of her forged experience certificate emerged. She had submitted a fake experience certificate at the Attappady Government College to secure a job as guest lecturer. Vidya went into hiding after the police registered the case.

Her arrest comes after fifteen days on the run from the law. In the meantime, she had approached the courts for anticipatory bail in the cases registered against her. There are allegations that the police facilitated it.

Earlier, there was also information that Vidya was in hiding at a hostel in Kalady Sanskrit University. However, the police reached the university hostel very late, raising suspicion about the police’s lack of interest in pursuing K Vidya.

Though the police are saying that they have conducted extensive search, questions still remain about how Vidya managed to reach Kozhikode without being detected.

Vidya’s arrest comes amid widespread outrage and criticisms against the police and CPI(M) leadership. It is believed that the arrest is just a ploy to avoid the loss of reputation to the party for helping K Vidya in the forgery case.