CHENNAI: Nirmala Devi, assistant professor in a college in Aruppukottai, who was arrested in connection with the Madurai Kamaraj University sex scandal, has made a confessional statement voluntarily during a custodial interrogation, admitting to the offences she was charged with.
A submission was made to this effect by the police before Madras High Court on Friday. She admitted that she had attempted to lure girl students only to offer sexual favours to the other two accused – Murugan and Karuppasamy – police said.
The confession of Nirmala Devi and other witnesses had revealed the involvement of Murugan and Karuppasamy in this case. The duo was in close association with Nirmala Devi. She had an illegal intimacy with both of them and gone to the extent of promising to please them by providing her own college students for sexual favours.
“Murugan and Karuppasamy asked Nirmala Devi to seduce young innocent college girls to offer sexual favours to them. Thus they tried to sexually exploit the girls,” SP Lavanya, Additional Superintendent of Police, said in her affidavit.
Lavanya, the investigation officer submitted that, with the assistance of cyber crime cell, the call data records of Nirmala, Karuppasamy and Murugan were obtained from Mobile Service Providers.
“They were analysed and relevant evidences of conspiracy between the three accused is established. The calls made and received by the accused were analysed and the persons concerned were summoned and examined and statements from them recorded. The calls between the three were corroborated by the voluntary confession and the facts were verified. The seizure of all digital evidences was done after following the due legal procedures,” she added.
Noting that the investigation disclosed that the accused had also conspired together to practise deception on the victims and on the strength of such deception, Nirmala Devi on various occasions induced four girl students to fall for sexual exploitation, she said, “In view of the above, the case has been altered as the one under sections 370 (3) read with 370 (1) (a), 120 (B), read with 370 (3), 354 (A) of the IPC, sections 5 (1)(a) and 9 of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act, and section 67 of the Information Technology Act.”
Seeking SIT’s probe
The submissions were made on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition moved by D Ganesan of the Revolutionary Students’ Youth Front (RSYF) seeking court’s direction to constitute a special investigation team (SIT), comprising of women police officers and led by a gender-sensitive officer in the rank of Deputy Inspector General of Police.