Probe sought against Seminary principal

: Staff and faculty of a city based seminary have sought a probe against the principal M Gnanavaram for alleged sexual harassment of students, nepotism and misuse of funds.
In their petition to District Collector Anshul Mishra yesterday, Tamilnadu Theological seminary staff and faculty alleged that several instances of sexual harassment in the seminary over the past three years had gone unreported.
Citing a particular incident, a representative of the faculty, J David Rajendran alleged that Gnanavaram had tried to molest a doctoral student from Manipur. Though the incident took place towards the end of 2009, she did not reveal the incident until recently.

"Now she has raised the issue and submitted a complaint to faculty members.We want the District Collector to intervene in the issue and so submitted a petition to him," he said.
Rajendran also said that scholarship amount of about Rs six lakh due to the student had not been given to her after she resisted the principal's advances. After the issue surfaced, Gnanavaram had returned the amount to UGC.
Professor of the seminary, S Cruz Durai alleged that the principal has favoured 12 of his family members and relatives in getting seats and employment in the college.
However, when contacted, Gnanavaram rejected all the charges levelled against him. "The charges are false and are based on personal vendetta," he said.