Chennai, Aug 1 (IANS): Tamil Nadu BJP on Thursday demanded a CBI investigation into the fake professor appointments in the engineering colleges of Anna University.

“The esteemed reputation of Anna University, one of India’s premier institutions, has been severely compromised by the egregious fake professor appointments scam in its engineering colleges. There must be a comprehensive investigation into the scam and a CBI inquiry to unravel the full extent of this academic fraud,” BJP Spokesperson A.N.S. Prasad said.

He demanded that the state government should conduct a thorough field investigation into all engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu to identify similar cases and take swift action against those responsible.

He also demanded the resignation of Higher Education Minister K.Ponmudi, asking him to take moral responsibility and acknowledge the government’s failure to prevent this debacle.

He said that the case has sent shockwaves across the state despite Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi’s diligent efforts to address the issue.

“At least 972 professors have been implicated in the case which exposes a brazen display of academic dishonesty,” Prasad said.

He said that Anna University Vice-Chancellor Velraj must take decisive action against the errant professors and implement stringent measures to prevent such incidents.

He added that the response of the Vice Chancellor of Anna University has been “woefully” inadequate.