A Fast Track Mahila court in Srivilliputhur here awarded ten years imprisonment for suspended assistant professor Nirmala Devi, allegedly accused of enticing college girls to offer sexual favours to a university's higher officials.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2.42 lakh on Devi.

She was sentenced to seven years Rigorous Imprisonment under section 370 of the IPC (offence of trafficking) and a fine of Rs 5,000, 10 years RI and a fine of Rs 25,000, five years RI and Rs 2,000 fine, 10 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000, three years RI and a fine of Rs 2 lakh, under various sections of the IPC including Information Technology Act and Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, according to Special Public Prosecutor M Chandrasekaran.

All the sentences will run concurrently and it also included her current years in prison, he said.

Chandrasekaran said the state would go on an appeal against the acquittal of V Murugan, a faculty, and S Karuppasamy, a former research scholar, in the case. He claimed that witnesses from the Madurai Kamaraj University had turned hostile.

The case pertains to Nirmala Devi, who while serving as an assistant professor of an arts college in Aruppukottai attempted to lure college girl students to provide sexual favours to officials of the Madurai Kamaraj University.

The purported incident came to light after an audio clip went viral on social media. She was arrested on April 16, 2018, by the Aruppukottai town police following a complaint by the college secretary claiming that four female students had complained to him that Devi attempted to engage them to provide sexual favours in return for marks and financial support.

The case was transferred to Crime Branch-CID and during the investigation, Murugan and Karuppasamy purportedly involved in the offence were arrested.

Judge T Bagavathiammal had found Devi guilty on five counts on Monday and had pronounced the sentence today, Chandrasekaran told reporters.

He said the judge declined to show mercy as sought by Devi's counsel, and that the judge had mentioned that only stringent punishment would serve as a deterrent to others.

Her counsel K Suresh Napolean had urged the court to be lenient towards Devi as she was a mother of two children. He later told reporters that he would go on an appeal against the verdict.