Sex talk with girl student lands college professor in hot water

Coimbatore: An associate professor of a city college has been placed under suspension for sending messages with sexual connotations to a final-year graduate girl student.

A source with the Thavathiru Santhalinga Adigalar Arts, Science and Tamil College said associate professor K Thirunavukkarasu used to chat with the girl student at night. “He had sent her his shirtless photo as well. She had discussed the issue with her senior S Sathish Kumar, who had completed the course and left the college, and he had taken up the issue with the college management last week.”

Meanwhile, screenshots of the chat were leaked on social media. The source said Sathish, along with his friends, had first approached Thirunavukkarasu, who had threatened to kill himself if they were to lodge a formal complaint with the college authorities, while confessing to have sent her messages with sexual connotations. “They took video of him confessing to the offence and submitted the same before the college management.”

Subsequently, the college management issued a show cause notice to Thirunavukkarasu on Saturday (Sept 25), seeking his response in three days. He submitted his explanation on Monday.

“College secretary Maruthachala Adigalar placed Thirunavukkarasu under suspension the same afternoon as the latter’s response was not satisfactory. He also directed the associate professor not to enter the college premises until further orders,” the source said.

The copy of the suspension order has been sent to the regional joint director of higher education and the complainant.

The source said the college management had formed an internal committee on Wednesday to probe the incident based on Sathish’s complaint. However, the girl student has not come forward to lodge any formal complaint so far.

Meanwhile, a section of students staged a sit-in in front of the college on Wednesday and raised slogans against the associate professor. They also urged the college management to dismiss Thirunavukkarasu from service with immediate effect.

When contacted, the Perur police said they had not received any complaint in this connection. “We deployed a few police personnel on the college campus as the students were staging protest,” a police officer said.


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