COIMBATORE: A day after officials of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) caught Bharathiar University Vice-Chancellor Dr A Ganapathi accepting bribe for regularising assistant professor’s T Suresh’s post, it emerged that the varsity’s Director in charge in the Directorate of Distance Education, R Mathivanan, too, had a role in the job racket.
Suresh had not only named Dr Ganapathi and Chemistry professor N Dharmaraj but also Mathivanan in his complaint. Based on the complaint, the DVAC filed an FIR against all three persons. Ganapathi and Dharmaraj are already under arrest.
“Only Ganapathi and Dharmaraj were caught red-handed with the chemically-coated notes. Mathivanan was not in the scene of crime. We intend to question Mathivanan,” DVAC officials said, adding he could be arrested after collecting evidence.
Top sources in the DVAC also told Express that they plan to question a few Syndicate members and few former vice chancellors in the State in connection with the job racket based on evidence they collected from Ganapathi’s residence. For his part, Ganapathi claimed he was being framed. “Since I am not a native of Coimbatore, people here have made me a fall guy,” he alleged outside a local judge’s house late on Saturday night.
He also claimed it was a plot by rivals, though he failed to elaborate. But DVAC officials are confident they have sufficient proof to nail Ganapathi. “We have recovered enough evidence. The documents also contain names of a few members of the Syndicate. After interrogating Mathivanan, we will call the Syndicate members for question.”
More trouble in store for VC?
The DVAC is probing a separate case of corruption in recruitment involving Ganapathi in November 2016. Months after he had taken over as V-C, he ignored a clear directive from the State education ministry against ratification of the appointment of 80 faculty members in the university and its constituent colleges. The DVAC got into the picture as he rammed it through in a Syndicate meeting on November 22 that year. Days later University Registrar in charge P S Mohan was blamed for the mess and he resigned in a huff.