Periyar University V-C arrested on charges of misappropriation of funds

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Police on Tuesday arrested R Jagannathan, Vice-Chancellor of state-run Periyar University, who is already under the scanner of the state government over a slew of allegations, on charges of embezzling public funds and violating rules by setting up a private company in his name.

Jagannathan, who was appointed as VC of the Salem-based university by then Governor Banwarilal Purohit in June 2021, is a known agricultural expert and had served as the dean of the prestigious Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore.

The V-C has been under the cloud for the better part of his tenure with several political parties and activists levelling allegations of corruption against him and his colleagues at the university established in 1997.

Police said Jagannathan was arrested from the University premises on Tuesday evening following a complaint filed by I Elangovan, legal advisor of the Periyar University Employees Union (PUEU). “There are a few other complaints against Jagannathan,” police said.

In his complaint, Elangovan alleged that the V-C along with the Registrar founded Periyar University Technology Entrepreneurship and Research Foundation (PUTER Foundation) in their own names by misusing the varsity funds. The foundation functions within the university premises.

It is alleged that the University administration, during a meeting of the Syndicate in November, proposed a collaboration with PUTER to conduct training programmes for the students. PUEU and the Association of University Teachers (AUT) have red-flagged the proposal demanding how the institution can collaborate with a firm in which the V-C and Registrar, both employees of the University, are directors.

They alleged that the V-C and other members of the administration were misusing funds and the infrastructure of the public university. The arrest comes even as an inquiry committee constituted by the state government to investigate several complaints against Jagannathan is yet to submit its report. The committee was given a two-month extension recently.

PMK leader and former Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss had last month demanded that the state government dismiss Jagannathan from his post, after the news of proposal to tie-up with PUTER Foundation emerged.

Ramadoss had said that students who get trained from the foundation will “pay higher fees” despite the firm utilizing the resources of the university which is funded by the taxpayers money.

Corruption in higher educational institutes in Tamil Nadu is not new as two former vice-chancellors of Anna University and Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law university were in 2018 booked for serious graft charges by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC).

The agency also arrested vice-chancellor of Coimbatore-based Bharathiar University, A Ganapathi, while accepting a bribe of Rs 30 lakh for regularising the job of an assistant professor, in the same year.