VILLUPURAM: A lengthy chargesheet (about 500 pages) including the testimonials of 348 eyewitnesses was filed by the Villupuram CB-CID officials in connection with the mysterious death of three girl students of SVS college more than a year ago, on Monday.
The chargesheet accuses three entities and five persons including college chairman Vasuki Subramanian, correspondent Subramanian, Swakar Varma, son of Vasuki and college mate of the deceased, Principal Kalanithi and Peru Venkatesan, an accomplice of Vasuki. It is alleged that Venakatesan was used by Vasuki to threaten students and collect exorbitant fees from them. The CB-CID also booked SVS BNYS College, SVS Educational Trust and its homeopathy research institution in the case.
The CB-CID sleuths claim that the eight accused extorted D1.6 crore from parents of students by flouting university guidelines. Chief Judicial Magistrate Subha Anbumani who received the chargesheet ordered the court officials to prepare a summons list for further procedures.
SVS College, a private naturopathy and yoga science institution attached to the Tamil Nadu Dr M G R Medical University was inaugurated at Bangaram village near Chinna Salem in 2008.
While the fee set by the government was stipulated to D25,000 a semester, the college allegedly collected an exorbitant fees of up to D1.2 lakh per student apart from a heavy admission fee.
Despite charging an exorbitant fee, the college had a poor infrastructure, for instance the laboratories of the college were serving as the hostel for both boys and girls eight years since its inauguration.
It also lacked basic facilities and never had doors for its toilets, drinking water for students, required books at the libraries and qualified faculties. And during inspections, senior students performed the role of faculty members after being threatened by the college administration.
In the absence of cooks, security men and other workers, students were forced to do their work and some students were even forced to do construction work and draw water from wells. Unable to put up with the torture, students filed an RTI request and obtained copies of many representations the college had made to the District Collector since 2013.
As no action was taken, six students who were suspended from the college for protesting, staged a suicide attempt within the premises of the collectorate by consuming pesticide.
But the most shocking incident occurred on January 1, 2016 as the bodies of three girls – T Monisha (19) from Ernavur, Chennai, V Priyanka (19) from Thiruvarur and E Saranya (19) from Cheyyar, all second-year bachelors in naturopathy and yoga students, were found dead in a farm well near to the college. The suicide note said they took the extreme step owing to the enormous fees charged by the college apart from repeated harassment and torture.