Tamil Nadu: 'Trainer' of disaster drill that killed girl faked credentials

COIMBATORE: A day after the accident that claimed the life of a 19-year-old girl during a disaster management drill at a private college in Coimbatore on Thursday, the Coimbatore rural police arrested G Arumugam, 31, of Vandalur in Chennai, who claimed to be a trainer from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
N Logeswari, a second-year BBA student of the Kovai Kalaimagal College of Arts and Science at Vellimalaipattinam near Narasipuram, died after hitting a sunshade on the first floor of the building when she was forced by the trainer to jump from the second floor.
Additional superintendent of police G S Anitha has been questioning Arumugam at the Alandurai police station.
It has come to light that the half-a-dozen degrees, including a PhD, that Arumugam claimed to have possessed were non-existent and that he was not authorised by the NDMA to conduct such training programmes.
With fake degrees and fictitious certificates, Arumugam has been conning colleges since 2011 by sending letters soliciting permission to train students.
The dubious PhD, Arumugam claimed, was given by Tokyo University. He claimed to have conducted 1,275 disaster awareness programmes across the state in colleges. A native of Manavalakurichi in Kanyakumari, Arumugam, strangely did not charge any fee from the colleges for the training he offered. The NDMA has clarified that he was neither its member nor was he trained by the authority.
"He would say college managements need not pay him. Instead the students can pay 50 each if they need a certificate on completion of disaster management exercise," ASP Anitha said. The college authorities declared a holiday on Friday and was evasive.