Court grants 5-day CB-CID custody of Nirmala Devi

Nirmala Devi, a faculty member of the Mathematics Department of the Devanga Arts College (Autonomous) in Virudhunagar was arrested last Monday, after an audio clip of her telephonic conversation with four undergraduate girl students, allegedly persuading them to offer sexual favours to top officials of the university, went viral on social media. 

She was remanded to 12-day judicial custody. The CB-CID, which is investigating the case, filed a petition before the Judicial Magistrate II court in Sattur, seeking seven-day custody of Nirmala Devi for interrogation. 

When the petition came up for hearing, judge V Geetha granted five days custody to the CB-CID. Nirmala Devi was later taken to the CB-CID office at Virudhunagar, where she was grilled by the investigating officer and Superintendent of Police S Rajeswari and other officers. 

The Aruppukottai police had registered a case against the assistant professor under Sections 370 and 511 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act. 

The case was reassigned to the CB-CID for a detailed probe. Meanwhile, the CB-CID sleuths conducted an enquiry with Devanga College principal Dr S Pandiarajan, its secretary R Ramasamy and the four girl students. Another CB-CID team conducted investigation with the MKU Registrar Dr V Chinniah in Madurai and also searched his office.  

In a related development, the one-man enquiry commission headed by retired IAS officer R Santhanam, constituted by Governor Banwarilal Purohit, to probe the complaint against Nirmala Devi, visited the college on Friday and held an enquiry with the college authorities and the four girl students.