The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday staged a protest in Chennai over the alleged sexual assault of a student on the campus of Anna University, The Hindu reported.

Opposition leaders condemned Tamil Nadu’s ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government and alleged security lapses on the university premises. They also alleged close ties between the MK Stalin-led party and 37-year-old Gnanasekaran, who has been accused of assaulting a second-year engineering student on Monday.

This came after several photographs of Gnanasekaran in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin and the Minister for Health and Family Welfare Department Ma Subramanian were circulated online.

Thursday’s protest outside Anna University caused disruptions to traffic, prompting the police to detain a few demonstrators including former Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, who is a BJP leader, and former AIADMK ministers D Jayakumar, S Gokula Indira and P Valarmathi.

Gnanasekaran had allegedly filmed the student and her partner on the university campus and then threatened to leak the footage to the dean and the couple’s parents if they didn’t comply with his demands, according to The News Minute.

Gnanasekaran then allegedly took the complainant to a remote location where he first blackmailed her before sexually assaulting her, between 7.45 pm and 8.20 pm on Monday. The first information report filed in the case states that the accused illegally held the student in his custody for 40 minutes.

Before fleeing the scene, Gnanasekaran also demanded the complainant’s phone number and said that she should meet him whenever he called, Times of India reported.

Gnanasekaran, who runs a roadside eatery near the campus, was arrested by the Greater Chennai Police on Wednesday. The police said at least seven other cases were pending against him.

The university authorities, meanwhile, pledged to expand CCTV surveillance of the campus and proposed to recruit former servicemen to patrol the premises, according to Times of India. The police said they would review the security arrangements in collaboration with the university authorities.