A sessions court in Srivilliputhur on May 11 rejected the bail plea of Nirmala Devi, arrested in connection with an alleged sex scandal.
The suspended assistant professor of the Devanga Arts College in Aruppukottai was accused of advising students to extend sexual favours to some officials in return for marks and money.
District Sessions judge Singaraj dismissed Ms. Devi’s bail plea and adjourned the hearing on the petitions filed by two other accused — V. Murugan and S. Karuppasamy — in the case to May 18.
Ms. Devi was arrested on April 16, a day after an audio clip went viral on the social media, in which she purportedly advised students “to adjust with some officials”. It was alleged that she sought to persuade girls to consider extending sexual favours to senior officials of Madurai Kamaraj University, to which the college is affiliated.
She, however, denied a sexual angle to her advice and claimed she had made it “in the right spirit” and not with any hidden motive or agenda.
Based on Ms. Devi’s alleged “confession”, the CB-CID had arrested Mr. Murugan, an assistant professor at MKU and Mr. Karuppasamy, a former research scholar.
Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit has constituted one-man commission headed by retired IAS officer R. Santhanam to go into the matter.
