Convicted: Former professor Nirmala Devi guilty of luring Tamil Nadu college students into sex – Times of India

MADURAI: Six years after a damning audio clip where she was heard luring college girls to do sexual favours for ‘senior officers’, Nirmala Devi, who was assistant professor then, was found guilty of the offence and convicted by Srivilliputhur mahila court on Monday. The court will pronounce the quantum of sentence on Tuesday.
Judge T Bagavathiammal, however, acquitted two other accused — V Murugan, assistant professor at Madurai Kamaraj University, and S Karuppasamy, a research scholar, for lack of evidence.Nirmala Devi was arrested on April 16, 2018. Nirmala Devi, an assistant professor at Devanga Arts College in Aruppukottai in Virudhunagar district, affiliated with Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU), was arrested on Apr 16, 2018.
She was arrested after an audio clip of her telephonic conversation with girl students in which she purportedly suggested them to do ‘favours’ for senior officials, went viral on social media. State govt transferred the case to CB-CID on April 17, 2018, and Murugan was arrested on April 24.

Defense counsel gets time to file counter documents

Karuppasamy surrendered at Madurai district court on April 25. CB-CID booked the three under IPC sections 370 (1) and (3) for bid to traffic persons, 120 (b) for criminal conspiracy and provisions of immoral trafficking and IT Act and Tamil Nadu Prohibition Harassment of Women Act. After completing the investigation, CB-CID filed the charge sheet before they were given bail after almost one year. During trial, the CB-CID filed 1,360 pages of chargesheet and the court heard the testimonies of 104 people, including the affected girl students, their parents, college authorities, MKU officials and teaching staff.

On Friday, judge T Bagavathiammal was constrained to adjourn the case to Monday, as Nirmala Devi did not appear before the court when it was scheduled to pronounce the judgment. On Monday, the judge held Nirmala Devi guilty and convicted her while acquitting Murugan and Karuppsamy citing lack of evidence. All three accused were present in the court with their counsel.
Though initially the judge said the quantum of punishment would be announced on Monday evening, counsel representing Nirmala Devi requested the judge two days’ time to present a few more documents. However, the public prosecutor objected to it, and requested the judge to pronounce the quantum of punishment. Judge Bagavathiammal, accepting the argument of the defence counsel, adjourned the sentence to Tuesday 2.30pm, by which time he could file the documents to the court.