T.N. college girls trafficking case | Former assistant professor Nirmala Devi convicted

Former assistant professor convicted of attempting to traffic students in Tamil Nadu, involving scandal with the Governor's office.

A Fast Track Mahila Court in Srivilliputtur on Monday, April 29, 2024, convicted Nirmala Devi, a former assistant professor at the Devanga Arts College in Arupukottai, in what became a sensational case, on charges of attempting to traffic four girl students of the college in 2018. 

However, the judge, T. T. Bagavathiammal acquitted two other accused persons in the case, V. Murugan, an assistant professor of Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU), and S. Karuppasamy, a former research scholar at MKU.

The quantum of sentence for Nirmala Devi will be pronounced on Tuesday, April 30. 

The case had sent shockwaves across the State in 2018, not only because of the nature of the crime, but also because it dragged into the scandal, the office of the Tamil Nadu Governor.

An audio clip of the purported conversation between Nirmala Devi, assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics, and four girl students during which she was attempting to convince them to do her bidding, had gone viral at that time.

The charge against her was that she was asking the girls to do “something,” as expected by “higher officials of the MKU,” in return for higher marks in their semester examination, money, and also seat for them in MKU for pursuing their postgraduate studies. She had also mentioned the office of the Governor during this conversation.

However, the girls who were not interested in the “assignment” had lodged a complaint with the college authorities.