DMK president MK Stalin on Sunday demanded that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami immediately suspend vice-chancellor of Anna University MK Surappa, who is facing an enquiry over allegations of corruption. Hitting out at Surappa for continuing in office despite the probe, he said it was a ‘mockery’. Surappa asserted that he had done no wrong and that he was ready to face any probe, soon after the state government on November 13 announced constituting an enquiry committee under retired High Court judge P Kalaiyarasan to go into allegations of corruption at the university, financial irregularities and graft charges against him.

Stalin wondered why the state government kept the complaints against the top varsity official ‘pending’ for nine months and sought to know what transpired during that period of time.

The leader of the opposition in the state assembly, in a statement, said that during the DMK regime (2006-11), when a corruption allegation was made against a Coimbatore-based university vice-chancellor, he was suspended and similarly, another official in Chennai also faced the same action during the present AIADMK regime as well, he said.

Surappa’s immediate suspension alone would lead to an honest and fair probe, Stalin said, urging the CM to suspend the official without any further delay. Also, all the documents connected to the allegations of corruption should be brought under the control of the enquiry panel, Stalin said.

Surappa had earlier been criticised by the opposition for insisting upon Anna University’s Institute of Eminence (IoE) tag. He even wrote a letter to the Union government seeking to expedite issuing of the tag. The tag comes with a Rs 1,000-crore grant and the vice chancellor said that the university was capable of generating Rs 1,570 crore in five years through internal means. He further added that the university did not need aid from the state government.

This was perceived by many as the Union government’s effort to hijack Anna University.