A team of the Thrikkakara police arrested Shajan Skaria, editor and publisher of YouTube channel Marunadan Malayali, in a forgery case from Nilambur in Malappuram district on Saturday.
Mr. Skaria turned up before the Station House Officer (SHO) of the Nilambur police as per a High Court directive in a case registered on charges of spreading communal hatred online on a petition filed by a Nilambur municipality standing committee chairperson. The court had warned that his conditional anticipatory bail would be cancelled if he failed to appear before the Nilambur SHO for questioning.
He was taken into custody by the Thrikkakara police the moment he emerged out of the Nilambur police station on a case registered on July 13. He was then brought to the Thrikkakara police station.
As per the First Information Report, Mr. Skaria had allegedly forged a BSNL telephone bill dated July 6, 2018 to register a company named Tiding Digital Publications Private Limited in Thiruvananthapuram. He allegedly used the forged bill to secure the incorporation certificate, thus cheating the Kerala Registrar of Companies.
The case was registered on a petition mailed by Radhakrishnan of Delhi to the Chief Minister. The accused was booked under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), and 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the Indian Penal Code.
While being arrested, Mr. Skaria claimed he was not involved in the case and that he was engaged in a fight against Pinarayi Vijayan.
Mr. Skaria who was on the run in a case registered on a petition lodged by P.V. Sreenijin, MLA, under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act had received a reprieve when the Supreme Court stayed his arrest on July 10 in that case.
