Mahila Court grants bail to Nirmala Devi in audio tape leak case

Devi was arrested by Aruppukkottai Town police on April 16 last year on charges of allegedly luring some girl students to extend favours to senior officials of the Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) in return for higher marks. Ahead of her arrest, an audio clip of her purported conversation with a few students had gone viral on social media.

After the CB-CID took up the case, a chargesheet was filed months after the arrest of the other accused, including V. Murugan, assistant professor, formerly with the MKU, and S. Karuppasamy, former research scholar of the university, in the case. But, much to Devi’s relief, she was granted bail by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on March 12 this year, nearly after 11 months of imprisonment.

However, when the case came up for hearing in this Mahila Court in Srivilliputhur on November 18, Devi failed to appear, but the other two accused were present.

Devi’s legal counsel claimed that since his client was unwell, she could not appear before the court. The judge then dismissed counsel’s claim and issued an arrest warrant against Devi. Later, the CB-CID arrested Devi based on the warrant and she was sent to judicial custody after being produced before the court.

On hearing her bail plea, Judge Maharaja granted her bail with a condition of appearing before the court on every hearing without fail. The case was posted for further hearing on December 13. Pasumpon Pandian, counsel on behalf of the petitioner, was present.