Principal of the Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary (TTS), M Gnanavaram, on Thursday approached the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court seeking anticipatory bail after a research scholar from Manipur accused him of sexually harassing her.
The city police had on Tuesday booked various cases under section 354 (Assault or criminal force used on a woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the IPC and section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act against Gnanavaram, based on a complaint from the scholar.
In her complaint, the scholar said that when she was pursuing her doctoral studies in the seminary between 2008 and 2010, Gnanavaram sexually harassed her. When she resisted, the principal redirected the scholarship amount of `6 lakh allocated by the University Grants Commission to her, she claimed. She has also filed a separate complaint against Gnanavaram with Collector Anshul Mishra. The police have registered an FIR and have questioned Gnanavaram.
However, Gnanavaram, who got himself admitted at a private hospital citing a heart problem on Wednesday night, filed the petition in the court on Thursday claiming that the complaint against him was motivated. Gnanavaram claimed it was not the scholar but a section of faculty members of TTS who had filed the complaint against him, without her knowledge. He said the faculty members had supported a candidate who contested against him for the principal’s post in 2009. At the hearing, Justice P Devadass adjourned the case to June 3. More: P4