Sexual favours scandal: MKU asst prof 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 on Wednesday in connection with the sexual favours scandal involving a woman college teacher, police said.

V Murugan, an assistant professor of the university, was arrested Tuesday night and produced Wednesday morning before a court in nearby Sattur, which remanded him to a five-day custody of the Crime-Branch Crime Investigation Department (CB-CID).

Research student Karuppasamy of the university surrendered before a Madurai court and was remanded to judicial custody till Thursday, 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 April 16, 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 April 17 because of its "sensitive nature".

Meanwhile, Santhanam arrived here on Wednesday 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 purported 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, soon after a complaint was received from the students.