PALAKKAD: A former DYFI leader has been arrested in connection with a case involving securing a contract job at a grama panchayat using a fake certificate. K.V. Ganapathi, a native of Kizheke Gramam, Puthukkode, who worked as an accountant-cum-IT assistant under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) at the Puthukkode panchayat, was nabbed by the Vadakanchery police. He is a former DYFI unit secretary.

Ganapathi worked on a contract basis at the Puthukkode panchayat from July 2021 to 2024. He had submitted a B.Com marksheet from the University of Calicut as his qualification. He secured the appointment during the tenure of the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) governing body.

However, when the United Democratic Front (UDF) came to power this time, the authorities were not willing to renew Ganapathi's contract. Following this, he approached the High Court, which ordered that he be provided work until September. Meanwhile, panchayat authorities, growing suspicious of his qualification documents, sent the marksheet to the university for verification.

The university officially informed that the marksheet was fake and that Ganapathi had not passed the degree. Subsequently, Puthukkode panchayat Assistant Secretary V. Deepa lodged an official complaint at the Vadakanchery police station. Following the complaint, the accused submitted his resignation and went into hiding. He was apprehended and arrested today following an intensive search by the police.