Chennai: Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam on Saturday said law will take its own course in the arrest of Bharathiar University Vice Chancellor A. Ganapathy for demanding bribe of Rs 30 lakh from an assistant professor for confirmation of his job.
While Panneerselvam refused to comment, PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss demanded that the CBI be asked to probe appointment of vice chancellors to various universities in Tamil Nadu and alleged that corruption in high places of education has become order of the day.
“Government employees who indulge in irregularities while in office will have to face the law. Law will take its own course and I assure that guilty will not be spared,” Panneerselvam told reporters here.
Barring Panneerselvam, senior ministers of the government were tight-lipped on the arrest of the VC that has rocked the higher education department. Governor based on recommendations from the government appoints vice chancellors.
However, the then Governor CH Vidyasagar Rao had in 2017 appointed a search committee to choose a vice chancellor for Anna University.
In a statement, Anbumani welcomed the “bold move” by the DVAC in arresting the vice chancellor and noted that Ganapathy is the first VC in the history of Tamil Nadu to be arrested for demanding bribe from a colleague for confirmation of his job.
“Ganapathy is notorious for demanding bribes from everyone and it is a known fact that he was never interested in improving the standards of the university,” Anbumani alleged and quoted reports that said '30 crore were received as bribe by the university authorities for appointing 76 professors and assistant professors.
He switched off phone, fax machine to ratify appointments
Political leaders alleged the agents of VC had collected up to Rs 30 lakh for the post of assistant professors. When the allegations of the irregularities surfaced, higher education secretary A.Karthik had sent a fax to defer the process of ratifying the appointments.
But A.Ganapathy allegedly switched off both his phone and fax machine and conducted syndicate meeting to ratify the appointments. He then put the blame on P.S.Mohan, the registrar (in charge) who was relieved of his responsibilities following the controversy.
