Minister for Higher Education, Kovi. Selvan, has provided clarification in response to the controversy over contradictions between his statements and those made by Chennai’s Police Commissioner regarding the sexual assault case at Anna University.A debate arose after Minister Kovi. Selvan’s comments appeared to contradict those made by the Chennai Police Commissioner regarding the sequence of events in the Anna University sexual assault case. The Commissioner had stated that the complaint had come through the university administration to the police, while the Minister had indicated that the victim had directly reported the matter to the police before informing the university.
This discrepancy led to criticism from Tamil Nadu BJP President, Annamalai, who released a statement questioning the state government’s intentions, asking, “Why so many contradictions? Who is the DMK government trying to protect?”
In response, Minister Kovi. Selvan issued a detailed explanation:
He clarified that the victim had directly contacted the police emergency number ‘100’ to report the incident. Based on this call, police officers arrived to conduct an investigation. It was during this time that a professor from the university’s Internal Complaints Committee (known as ‘POSH’) assisted the victim in filing her complaint.
The Minister further explained that the police, while conducting their investigation at the university, discovered that other members of the POSH committee were made aware of the incident. As a result, it was later clarified that the POSH committee did not file a complaint directly, which led to the misunderstanding in the initial statements.