Prof nabbed red-handed while collecting Rs 25k from student

The accused was identified as R Russell Raj, a native of Kanniyakumari district, who is an associate professor in the Department of History at the Government Arts College, Melur in Madurai. The arrest happened at around 8 am on Sunday based on a complaint lodged by a research scholar, Gladis Flora, with the DVAC following which a sting operation was carried out.

According to official sources, their investigations revealed that associate professor Russel Raj, a resident of Unnamalaikadai, allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 50,000 from Flora. The research scholar, a resident of Idaikode in Kanniyakumari, was asked to pay up if he were to fix a date for conducting viva voce.

After they received the complaint against the faculty, the officers asked Flora to agree to pay up Rs 25,000, half of the money that he demanded. Russel Raj allegedly asked her to hand over the money at the Marthandam-Kulasekaram junction on Sunday morning. When she informed the DVAC team about this, they laid a trap for him. The officials gave her currency notes coated with a chemical and asked her to hand it over to him.

Then team followed Flora to the junction, and nabbed Russel Raj as he was accepting the bribe from her on Sunday morning.

Sources said there were many other allegations against associate professor, who was appointed at the Government college in 2013. He was nominated as research guide for Flora after she registered for PhD at the Madurai Kamaraj University in 2016. Officials believe that he had collected money from her on earlier occasions too, but the demand that he raised this time was much more than what she couldafford anymore.