After facing criticism over the arrest of Tamil magazine Nakkheeran editor R Gopal, the Tamil Nadu Governor’s office on Friday accused the magazine of practising “yellow journalism” and denied that Governor Banwarilal Purohit or his secretary or Raj Bhavan officials have had any links with Assistant Prof Nirmala Devi, the main accused in the Madurai Kamraj University sex scandal.
“Truth is that Nirmala Devi has never entered Raj Bhavan in the last one year and she does not have any acquaintance with the Governor (Banwarilal Purohit) or the Secretary to the Governor or any of the Officers working in the Raj Bhavan,” the statement issued by the Governor’s office on Friday said refuting the article published by the magazine in September. It added that the Governor never visited the Madurai Kamaraj University’s guest house when he visited the varsity to for the Mother Theresa University convocation held there.
Justifying the case filed against the Nakkheeran magazine editor and other employees, the governor’s office said that the complaint was given after having been hurt by the continuous slander. The statement said no threats direct or indirect on a constitutional authority such as the governor will be tolerated and that the Raj Bhavan “can and will never be cowed down” by actions aimed at hurting the dignity of the high office.
On October 9, Gopal was arrested by the Chennai Police over a complaint filed by Purohit's office about his publication's reportage on the sex scandal involving Nirmala Devi who was arrested in April this year for luring girls to give sexual favours to top officials. However, he was released by a magisterial court.
Gopal's arrest also invited criticism from various political parties including DMK, MDMK and Left who called it as an attack on the media.
The report published by the Tamil magazine in September alleged that the assistant professor visited the Raj Bhavan and the university guest house and also she had met governor and his secretary.
“The Secretary to the Honourable Governor did not even accompany him on any visit to the Madurai Kamaraj University. It can only be a deep sense of hatred towards goodness and truth that could have driven any journalist to have written the articles in the manner they appeared in the Nakkeeran,” the Raj Bhavan statement said.
Immediately after Nirmala Devi arrest, Governor Purohit appointed R Santhanam, a former bureaucrat, to look into the incident and said he has no links whatsoever to the woman professor and had never met her. He had also called as “defamatory” and “baseless” reports that he had known the woman professor.
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