Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Video shows BU dept head taking money

Says ‘A Friend Was Returning Owed Money’

Vishnu.Swaroop@timesgroup.com

Coimbatore: Corruption charges and the arrest of former vice-chancellor of Bharathiar University A Ganapathi still fresh, another controversy erupted on Monday, this time in the form of a video. The clip that surfaced on Monday showed the head of the Tamil department D Gnanasekaran receiving money from a person, allegedly for a posting in the university.

In the video, Gnanasekaran is seen entering his residence, where people are waiting to meet him. He tells them he had come back after meeting the VC, but does not specify the VC’s name. Later, he is seen demanding money from a person who is not seen in the video, but purportedly a job aspirant. He then receives cash from the person.

The state higher education department has decided to send the video to the police department and probe its authenticity as well as the allegations. “We will send the video to the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti–Corruption for an inquiry,’’ higher education secretary Sunil Paliwal told TOI.

“They will conduct an interview, but there will be no selection list,” Gnanasekaran had said. He is also seen asking the aspirant for ‘payment’ and later receiving cash. He tells the aspirant that he will hand over the ‘payment’ to the VC.

However, when contacted, Gnanasekaran denied the allegations. “The voice in the video doesn’t seem to be mine. The video seems to have been taken around five years ago, as the track suit I’m wearing in the video was used by me back then. The situation might also have been an instance where a friend who had borrowed money from me had returned it. Also, I used to help friends and students by giving referrals, the video might also have been taken in such a situation,” said Gnanasekaran. He said he became the head of the department only in September 2017. “I was not the head of the department when the appointments were made during Ganapathi’s tenure,” he said. “I had contested for the post of the university's vice-chancellor last time. My name had also surfaced in the list of VC candidates for Thiruvalluvar University. The video seems to have been taken out of context by someone who wanted to tarnish my reputation,” he said. He added that he had explained his position to the university registrar and members of the convener committee. Gnanasekaran, however, said he could not recall the “friend” from whom he was seen receiving the money.

When contacted, registrar in-charge of the university B Vanitha said the university officials had come to know about the allegation only when the video was telecast in a Tamil news channel.


FRESH SCANDAL: The clip that surfaced on Monday showed the head of the Tamil department D Gnanasekaran receiving money from a person, allegedly for a posting in the university

No comments:

Post a Comment

NEWS TODAY 28.11.2024