CHENNAI:The principal in-charge of the Dr Ambedkar Government Arts College in Vyasarpadi in North Chennai has been caught on tape negotiating and accepting money from a prospective student for allegedly offering him admission in an undergraduate degree course last week.
On Monday, a section of students of the college, which widely caters to the higher educational aspirations of the economically weaker sections, shot off a petition to Higher Education Minister P Palaniappan exposing the scandal, appending the purported audio and video evidence.
The student (name withheld), who claimed to have paid the bribe, told Express that he had submitted an application for enrolling in the BCom degree course in the college. “Around 10 days ago, principal in-charge S Navamani called me over phone and said I would not be eligible to get the seat as my Class XII score was only 624. Later, he offered to give me the seat if I paid Rs 15,000 as bribe,” he alleged.
Last week, the boy’s elder brother, who is also a past student of the college, negotiated with Navamani over phone and recorded the conversation.
Salute Me for Admitting Boy with Poor Score: Navamani
In the audio tape, he introduces himself as the candidate’s brother. The Principal instantly gets down to business and is heard explaining to him, that his brother can’t be enrolled in BCom immediately due to his poor marks.
“Tomorrow we will enroll in some other course. Then we can transfer him to BCom. We can’t directly grant admission in BCom,” Navamani is heard saying. Navamani goes on to explain that if the boy is directly enrolled in BCom it could invite unwarranted queries but as Principal he has powers to issue him an order transferring to BCom later.
Navamani claimed that he had issued a similar transfer order to another student who had enrolled 10 days ago.
Hence, he offered to grant admission to the boy in the BA Defence course and promised to transfer him to BCom later for which he needed to pay only the differential fee of Rs 30 or Rs 50.
When the boy’s brother asked if the amount of Rs 15,000 could be reduced, Navamani rejected it outright. “You don’t have the mark. Doing this itself is a big thing. You need to salute me (for this)….Or else, leave it. We cannot do it. He is ‘attempt’ (slang for a boy who has failed in the first attempt). You don’t know how much adjustment needs to be done for this,” he is heard saying. The boy’s brother agreed and Navamani directed him to come to the T Nagar bus stand to pay the amount around 8 pm on August 4. “We decided to capture this on video with our smartphone. My brother placed the phone in his shirt pocket with the camera lens jutting out. It was night and drizzling when we met the Principal, who had covered his head with a kerchief, and handed over Rs 7,000 as advance,” the student said. They promised to hand over the remaining Rs 8,000 the next morning.
In the video, the Principal is seen putting the money inside his trouser pocket and asks them to come the next morning to the college. He also gives directions to the boys to return home.
On August 5, the boy was given admission in the BA Defence course. “We wanted to expose this as a government college is the only resort for poor students like us. The government has waived the tuition fee to enable us to study but the good intentions of our Chief Minister is being spoiled by such bribery demands by unscrupulous persons,” said the student.
Another group of students claimed that at least four students had paid bribes to get admission into the college but Express could not independently verify this allegation.
When this Correspondent contacted Navamani on his mobile phone to get the latter’s reaction, he snapped the conversation saying he was held up in a traffic signal. Later, his mobile phone was switched off.
Express shared the video clip with some professors and students who are familiar with Navamani and they confirmed that the man in the video is indeed the Principal in-charge of the college.