Ahead of T.N. Governor Ravi’s visit, police conduct searches at Salem Periyar University

Salem City Police conduct searches at Periyar University ahead of Governor's visit; Vice-Chancellor faces criminal case.

Hours before a scheduled visit of Tamil Nadu Governor-Chancellor R.N. Ravi to the Periyar University, the Salem City Police on Thursday, January 11, 2023 began searches at six places in the varsity campus.

The university’s Vice-Chancellor R. Jagannathan is out on conditional bail in a case of alleged cheating and criminal conspiracy in connection with which he was arrested recently. The Governor is scheduled to meet the university officials in the afternoon

Sources said six special teams headed by six inspectors arrived at the university around 9.30 a.m. and began conducting searches at six different places. The searches are on at the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) office, Finance office, Tamil Department office, Computer Centre, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) centre, and Planning and Development office.

With the Vice-Chancellor continuing in office despite facing a criminal case faculty associations in the university had alleged that evidence in the case could be destroyed.

Meanwhile, opposing the Governor’s visit, the Federation of Students Organisation Tamil Nadu had announced a protest against him. Heavy police force has been deployed on the campus as part of security measures.