Some staff associations in Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) have alleged that the claims of senior university officials, including the Vice-Chancellor P.P. Chellathurai that they were unaware of the controversy involving an assistant professor allegedly luring four girl students over phone until the issue surfaced in the media were implausible.
In his interviews to a section of the media on Sunday, including The Hindu , Mr. Chellathurai said that he had neither heard about the audiotape or the name of P. Nirmala Devi, the Assistant Professor of Devanga Arts College, who has been accused of attempting to ‘lure’ four girl students at the behest of some MKU officials.
The office-bearers of the Joint Action Council of MKU (JAC-MKU), which includes two teaching and non-teaching staff associations, however, pointed out that a weekly magazine, which wrote on the controversy at least 10 days ago, had said that it had contacted both Mr. Chellathurai and Registrar V. Chinniah for a comment.
According to the magazine report, while the V-C had said that he was at a hospital and could not comment, Mr. Chinniah said that he was not in a position to comment on the issue and assured to discuss it with the V-C.
M. Buvaneswaran, president, Madurai Kamaraj University Faculty Association (MUFA), said that Ms. Nirmala Devi, who was attending a residential refresher course at the Academic Staff College (ASC) of MKU, was relieved from the course mid-way, following suspension by her college owing to the controversy.
“When she was relieved, it is highly unlikely that senior university officials were unaware of the issue,” he contended, adding that if the university was genuinely concerned, they must have commenced an enquiry immediately instead of claiming ignorance. When contacted, Mr. Chellathurai said that he was genuinely unaware of the incident until The Hindu contacted him for a comment on Sunday and only later he listened to the “shocking” audio.
On the comment in the weekly magazine, he said that he was hospitalised after a surgery and did not even ask the reporter what the issue was. He said that the issue was not brought to his knowledge either by Mr. Chinniah or the Director of ASC V. Kalaiselvan, who wrote to Devanga Arts College to allow Ms. Nirmala Devi to finish the course, citing certain rules of the University Grants Commission.
Committee withdrawn
Meanwhile, the V-C also withdrew the five-member internal committee formed on Monday to investigate the issue, following the constitution of the single-member committee by the Governor. The committee, the Governor said, had been constituted without his consent.
