Tamil Nadu sex-for-degrees case: Madurai Kamraj University assistant professor held, research scholar surrenders

A senior faculty member of the Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) has been arrested, while a research scholar surrendered before a court today in connection with the sexual favours scandal involving a woman college teacher, police said. [caption id=“attachment_4434207” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of the Madurai Kamaraj University. mkuniversity.org[/caption] V Murugan, an assistant professor at the university, was arrested last night and produced this morning before a court in nearby Sattur, which remanded him to a five-day custody of the CB-CID. Research student Karuppasamy of the university surrendered before a Madurai court and was remanded to judicial custody till tomorrow, the police said. Suspended assistant professor Nirmala Devi, the main accused in the scandal, has reportedly told the CB-CID that Murugan and Karuppasamy had instigated her to lure the students to extend sexual favours to the officials of the university, in return for higher marks and money. Devi of the private Devanga Arts College in Aruppukottai was arrested on 16 April, a day after an audio clip went viral in the social media, where she purportedly sought to persuade girls to consider extending sexual favours to senior MKU officials. As the issue snowballed into a major controversy, Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit, who is the chancellor of the university, ordered a probe by retired IAS officer R Santhanam. The case, initially registered by the local police, was transferred to the CB-CID on 17 April because of its “sensitive nature”. Meanwhile, Santhanam arrived here today and two girl students of the Devanga Arts College, affiliated to the MKU, gave petitions to him through their lawyer, Muthukumar, the police said. The contents of the petitions were not immediately known. The woman assistant professor was alleged to have contacted the students a month ago, but the scandal came to light only after the audio clip went viral. The college management has said that she was suspended, pending inquiry, soon after a complaint was received from the students.