By PTI
SRIVILLIPUTHUR: A sessions court here rejected today the bail plea of assistant professor Nirmala Devi, arrested in connection with an alleged sex scandal.
The suspended assistant professor of the private Devanga Arts College in Aruppukottai, some 500km from Chennai, was accused of advising students to extend sexual favours to some officials in return for higher marks and money.
District Sessions judge Singaraj dismissed Nirmala Devi's bail plea and adjourned the hearing on the petitions filed by two other accused in the case - V Murugan and Karuppasamy to May 18.
Nirmala 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 (MKU), 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 Devi's alleged "confession", the CB-CID had arrested Murugan, an assistant professor at MKU and Karuppasamy, a former research scholar.
Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit has constituted a 'high powered enquiry' under retired IAS officer R Santhanam to probe the matter.
