The father of Monisha, Tamilarasan, alleged students in the college have been agitating for the last few months against lack of infrastructure and brought it to the notice of the district administration. “But no action was taken against the management,” he pointed out. “My daughter had come home for Pongal and returned to the hostel on Friday. She is not so weak to commit suicide.”
In a complaint lodged with the Villupuram police, M Ezhumalai, father of Saranya of Avadi alleged that his daughter was murdered. “There was water in the well, yet all the girls had head injuries. My daughter was among those who had deposed against the college during an enquiry by officials after the students submitted a complaint to the district administration last year. I fear mercenaries were hired to kill her,” he alleged in the complaint.
Mr. Ezhumalai said his daughter got admission into the college through single window counselling conducted by the Government. “The management collect her original academic certificates and refused to return them when after inspecting the institution we wanted to withdraw her as there were no basic amenities. Later I paid Rs 1.5 lakh as fee,” he charged.
Saranya’s relative Manjula demanded that the post-mortem be conducted in Chennai and video-graphed. But officials convinced them to permit the post-mortem to be conducted at the local Government Hospital. But parents of another girl Priyanka refused to budge.
Parents and relatives of the girls protested in front of the Government Medical College and Hospital at Mundiyambakkam in Villupuram demanding the police to arrest the administrator of the college and register a case.
The police have picked up Swagat Varma, son of the college administrator Vasuki, lecturer Koteeswari and hostel wardens Sumathi and Lakshmi for interrogation in connection with the incident. A special team has been sent to Chennai to interrogate Vasuki.
The SVS College was established in 2008. Incidentally, officials at the Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University, which is the affiliating body for medical and naturopathy colleges, said the students had previously moved the Madras High Court accusing the college of collecting exorbitant fees and not providing basic facilities. In 2008-09, the college received permission to start courses on yoga. In 2011-12, they were given a no-objection certificate to start courses in homeopathy. But we did not grant is affiliation as we found it lacked in infrastructure. Nonetheless, the institution has been admitted students in the last two years on the basis of interim orders passed by the Madras High Court,” claimed a Syndicate Member of the university.
Following complaints from students in December, the university had sent a team to inspect the college. “We are awaiting its report,” said university Vice Chancellor Dr S. Geetalakshmi.Meanwhile, VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan demanded that the Government provide compensation to families of the deceased girls and also transfer the remaining students to other affiliated colleges.
(With inputs from R. Sujatha)
