Coimbatore: The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) on Thursday filed a petition before the special court for DVAC cases seeking five-day police custody of former Bharathiar University vice-chancellor A Ganapathi and professor Dharmaraj. This comes after the court dismissed their bail petitions. The DVAC petition will come up for hearing on Friday.
Ganapathy and Dharmaraj had been arrested on corruption charges.
Seeking bail, senior advocate C Gnanabharathi argued that there was no evidence against Ganapathi. "Former registrar (in-charge) P S Mohan, who was involved in a tug-of-war with Ganapathi, had resigned from his post a few months ago. He had instigated his colleague T Suresh to set up the trap," the advocate said.
"The vice-chancellor alone cannot confirm the probation period of assistant professor Suresh. It should be approved by the head of the department as well as the syndicate. Suresh was appointed on November 23, 2016 and his one-year probation period was over two-and-a-half months ago. How can the vice-chancellor demand bribe to issue order to complete the probation period? Also, DVAC sleuths did not seize post-cheques from the vice-chancellor. The case is fabricated," the advocate said and demanded conditional bail for both the accused.
Prosecution counsel Sivakumar argued that the role of Ganapathi and Dharmaraj were established by the investigation agency. "DVAC sleuths have submitted the audio recordings of Ganapathi in conversation with Suresh before the court. If conditional bail is granted, the accused will destroy the evidence by using their influence," he said.
After hearing the arguments, judge John Mino dismissed the bail petition.
