Coimbatore: College faculty member arrested for misbehaving with students suspended

COIMBATORE:

Director of collegiate education

(DCE) has placed the 42-year-old faculty member from government arts college, Coimbatore under suspension. He was arrested on charges of misbehaving with girl students on Friday.

According to the principal

V Kalaiselvi

, they received the order of his suspension on Saturday night from the director of collegiate education

C Poornachandran

. The decision was taken following a meeting of the director with staff from the higher education department.

In the order, the director has cited the ongoing investigation by the

C - 2 police station

, race course against the accused teacher P N Ragunathan who heads a department in the college.

“While he was arrested by the police, it is necessary to place him under suspension for public interest, '' observed the director Poornachandran in the letter,” according to Kalaiselvi.

A 19-year-old girl student had lodged a complaint with the race course police on Friday over alleged physical advances by the teacher in March this year.

Ragunathan was also found to have sent lewd messages to a few more girl students. Based on the preliminary investigation, police booked him under four different sections and arrested him on Friday.