Tainted professor of Madurai Kamaraj University Nirmala Devi’s proximity to officials under lens

MADURAI:  The investigations carried out by CB-CID as well as the one-man committee appointed by the governor into the alleged telephone conversation of the suspended assistant professor of Arupukottai Devanga College Nirmala Devi, luring a group of students to do sexual favours to some higher university officials, are in full swing. Additional Controller of Examinations at the Directorate of Distance Education in Madurai Kamaraj University M Rajarajan has submitted some documents to the one-man committee R Santhanam at MKU guest house here on Saturday.

He had questioned MKU Vice-Chancellor P P Chellathurai and Registrar V Chinniah for three hours on Thursday and they had submitted several documents relating to Nirmala’s case. On Friday, R Santhanam carried out the investigation at Arupukottai Devanga Arts College. Earlier, Santhanam said that he would receive petitions related to the issue from the public on Saturday. But no one turned up to submit any representation. In the afternoon, he went to MKU guest house and received some documents related to the classes taken by Nirmala Devi in DDE from Rajarajan.

Speaking to Express, Santhanam said, “At Arupukottai, I have questioned 20 persons and received one representation from the public. I am planning to question Nirmala. I am going to Arupukottai college on Wednesday to question some people. At MKU guest house, I have received 12 representations from the teaching and non-teaching staff,” he added. Meanwhile, the CB-CID sleuths, on Friday, questioned the registrar of MKU Chinniah about the proximity of Nirmala Devi with the top officials of the university.

The team interrogated the MKU professors and the office staaf of the V-C. They said, they had recovered a few material evidence, including call records that point to the involvement of a few university officials. Later on Friday evening, the team visited the office of the registrar and had a second round of investigation and confiscated documents related to the expenses and accommodation given to Nirmala Devi and to other professors during their visit to the university. CB-CID sleuths are also taking steps to recover the CCTV footage of the university.