MADURAI
The State government has appointed a Special Public Prosecutor to handle the audiotape scandal involving Assistant Professor Nirmala Devi, who is charge with an attempt to traffic four college girls for doing some favour for higher officials of Madurai Kamaraj University in return of higher marks and money.
The SPP, Ramakrishnan, whose appointment was made early this week, would exclusively handle the case. “The SPP will be of great help to us in the court. With his full concentration only in the case, it will be easier for us to conduct trial and take it up to the logical conclusion,” a CB-CID official said.
The trial of the case would come up at Srivilliputtur Sessions Court. A special CB-CID team, led by Superintendent of Police S. Rajeswari, has been conducting inquiries in Virudhunagar.
The CB-CID had interrogated several officials and members of the management board of Devanga Arts College in Aruppukottai, which placed Nirmala Devi under suspension after four girls of the college lodged a complaint seeking action against her. The girls also submitted a digital version of audio conversation that happened between them and Nirmala Devi.
Though the college took action, the issue became public only after the audio tape started circulating in social media.
The local police arrested Nirmala Devi and subsequently the case was transferred to the CB-CID. Later, the CB-CID arrested an Assistant Professor of the MKU, V. Murugan, and his aide and former research scholar S. Karuppasamy surrendered before a court.
Meanwhile, the Governor appointed one-man Commission, headed by retired IAS officer R. Santhanam, also conducted a parallel enquiry and submitted it report to Governor Banwarilal Purohit.
After a long lull, CB-CID sleuths restarted their probe by conducting inquiries with several staff members and officials of the MKU on Wednesday. MKU sources said a general information was passed on to the staff members by the university to go to a particular hall for the inquiry.
Meanwhile, The Save MKU Coalition flayed the inquiry of MKU staff by the CB-CID without issuing any summons. “The sleuths had noted down the names and other details of the persons and asked them whether they faced any problems in the university. When they said they had no problems, they were asked to leave,” a statement said.
The CB-CID had not specified the incident about which they were questioning them. “It looks like the CB-CID is preparing the witnesses list who are close to the university administration,” the statement said.
