S Karuppasamy, the co-accused in the Nirmala Devi ‘Sex-for-cash’ scandal, has withdrawn his bail application from the Madurai bench of Madras High Court.
Speaking to TNM, his lawyer Maniraj Shanmugam said that the bail application was withdrawn since the Judge did not seem keen on granting bail.
“The Assistant Attorney General of Tamil Nadu expressed strong objection to us filing the petition and the judge did not seem keen on granting us bail. So we decided to withdraw the bail application. We are planning to file a fresh application next week,” he said.
He also added that they wanted to avoid a situation where the judge rejects the bail application.
“If the judge rejects our application, then we must wait for 15 days to file a fresh application. So to avoid that, we are withdrawing it now,” he added.
Background
Nirmala Devi, former assistant professor in the Devanga Arts College in Aruppukottai was arrested in April when four students complained that she tried to lure students into sex work. The 19-minute long audio clip of her telephonic conversation, in which she asks students to do things ‘secretly’ for a senior official of the Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) was widely shared on social media and caused outrage.
The case brought the Vice Chancellor of MKU into focus since she claimed the involvement of ‘senior officials’. At one point, she also claims to know the Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit.
The Governor then formed a one-person committee, headed by the retired IAS officer R Santhanam, to probe the case.
The CB-CID, who then took over the case, arrested her alleged aides- S Karuppasamy, a former research scholar at the MKU and V Murugan, an assistant professor of Management studies at the MKU.
S Karuppasamy is lodged in the Madurai Central Jail and had applied for bail, following his arrest.
Meanwhile, the committee headed by R Santhanam is still probing the issue.