Another person was taken into custody in connection with the fake degree certificate case this morning, police said.

Abin C Raj, the second accused in the controversial fake certificate row, was picked up by the Kayamkulam police from the international airport in Kochi, they said.

Raj was suspected to have helped Nikhil Thomas, the prime accused in the case, forge a fake degree certificate to submit at the Kayamkulam-based MSM College to get admission.

Former SFI leader Raj was said to be working as a teacher in Maldives.

"He was working abroad and we have brought him to Kerala with the help of his parents. When he landed at the airport, we immediately took him into custody," the officer told PTI.

Interrogation is going on at present.

"As per the statement of Thomas, Abin Raj had helped him forge the fake degree certificate with the support of an agency. Thomas also said he had handed over money to Raj for the same," he added.

A court here on Saturday had granted the police seven-day custody of former SFI leader Nikhil Thomas in the case. Under attack from various quarters over the fake certificate charges, the Students' Federation of India (SFI) expelled him from the primary membership of the outfit.

The Kerala Students' Union (KSU), the students' wing of the Congress in the state, has been alleging that Thomas had obtained a seat for M.Com course in the same college after submitting a "fake degree certificate".

The KSU has claimed that Thomas failed in his BCom degree course at MSM College but during MCom admission, he provided a certificate from Kalinga University in Chhattisgarh.

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